


Their Diary, Our Diary

by Mrs_BlueLion01



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aquariums, Boxer Shiro, Character Deaths but some are minor, Death, Everyday AU, Fish, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Ichthyologist, Ichthyologist Matt, Langst, Major Character Death will be for a far away chapter, Mentions of Suicide, Merlance, Mermaids, Ocean, Other additional tags to be added later, Pidge as a Race Car driver, Possible mentions of other Voltron Characters, Resent me now, Suicide, Writer Keith, Yes there will be a character death, slight alcohol use, the little mermaid references
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2018-12-09 05:34:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 47,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11662659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mrs_BlueLion01/pseuds/Mrs_BlueLion01
Summary: Lance is a Merman who has been trapped inside of an aquarium tank for the past 14 years and wants nothing more than freedom into the vast blue oceans. His mother had strangely died while he was just a young guppy, his hatred for humans oh so grand because he blamed them for her death.<>Keith is a human who barely leaves his home but aspires to be a world known Novelist just like his mother. He wants nothing more than to finish the story his mother never got to publish before dieing from a car accident but still having being an inexperienced writer he makes this into a dream for him to achieve.<>When Keith is offered free tickets to this said aquarium and locks eyes with Lance, he knew his life was about to change but he wasn't sure if it was going to be for the best or the worst. They both had hoped for the absolute best, for both of their dreams and futures.





	1. Aquarium Life

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so here is Project number 1: My MerLance/Klance story~!  
> Yes, I Know some of you are probably like,  
> 'Ughhh, another fishy Au fanfic to the fandom?? COME ON!'  
> But I still wanna write it anyways, ok??? (TT^TT)
> 
> Anyways, Here's a quick note: When Lance or any other Ocean animal he can communicate with speaks, instead of quotation marks "-" It will be this [-] symbol because he can only speak telepathically, even outside and above water. 
> 
> "So instead of this format,"  
> [This format will be used for telepathic speech.]
> 
> Why, you will find out eventually if you stick around sooo I hope you all like this chapter and whats to come~!

[Here we go again...]

Once the doors were swung open by the staff people were slowly coming in, low chatter being heard amongst them even behind the thick glass of the tank as they were approaching the last destination of the aquarium. 

[They're approaching, get ready everyone!]

[Alright guys, let's do this~]

Many people began to enter the room that was 100 percent tank as it encircled them in a 360 degree view, which was supposed to contain many different kinds of rare fish and different critters from all over the world, both regular every day fishes down to the most rarest. But the main attraction of this particular tank wasn't just the different multi colored fish but the rarest creature that many have thought only existed in storybooks or movies, a magical myth passed on throughout many passing years.

A Mermaid. 

Well, a MerMAN to be exact. 

Once a month a special performance was held at the center of the globe-like aquarium, a performance that whoever came was bound to look forward to it because the only reviews that were received from it was "Spectacular!", "A moment to remember!" or "Something you can't miss out on!". It was like reading reviews for a Broadway theater than an aquarium, really, and the show was only for first come-first serve audiences but after the performance the tank was available for regular public viewing until aquarium closing time. Merman and fish all included of course because grabbing tickets for regular viewing of the aquarium itself wasn’t that cheap for just an in and out touring. The Aquarium was pretty large, inside and out, which meant it took quite a while to get through the whole place but many people usually just skim right through just to get to the merman viewing since It’s always been the biggest attracting for the past 15 years.

The room now filled up with maybe around 50 people or so but still counting as they sat in the chairs that sat in the middle of the ocean-globe like view, almost reaching its limit of entry of 60 people for the performance. Once the limit was reached they talked amongst themselves with excitement or to pass time for about 15 to 20 minutes before they were quieted, something finally swimming out from behind a medium sized rock within the tank. It was a sea otter, slowly swimming its way into full view where the people were sitting. Everyone watched as the mammal came to a halt once it was in full view for everyone to see it, a couple of "Aww"’s being heard here in there before it was quiet again. The sea otter began to clap its hands in a slow pace, due to the water of course but its goal was to encourage the audience to clap along and clapped along they did. At first the clapping was soft and uneven, the audience already at awe by the sea otter by itself because there was no way someone could be leading the sea otter to do this, the view around them was pure tank and water!

But once the upbeat music started to play from the speakers below the tank and all around, their clapping begins to even out and transitions from soft to slightly louder now. The sea otter stops clapping to open its little arms wide and upon doing so, the empty tank was slowly being filled with different kinds of little fish swimming out from behind the rocks and reefs in a line, swimming to the beat of the music. Everyone's expression, from the little kids to the grown adults, lit up instantly to the colorful view surrounding them around the tank, little by little different kinds of sea animals were coming out as well.

When every sea critter and animal was out dancing to the music for at least a minute in different patterns and at least made two rounds around the tank, it was finally HIS turn to show himself.

A slightly dark shadow loomed above the audience, causing them all to look up as a long figure swam above them. And before they knew it, the famous and mythical creature of the show revealed itself, the awaited Merman appearing before them with opened arms, bowing before them when the music finally came to an end. The kids cheered and squealed in excitement, the adults clapping and staring in awe at the strange yet beautiful creature before them. A woman’s voice then came from the very speakers the music had just been playing on, introducing herself as Nyma the Aquarist before asking the audience for another round of applause and introducing Lance, the Merman.

As Lance swam around the tank slowly waving at everyone with a smile, Sarah began to talk about sea life and the ocean for a brief 5 minutes before starting to spew “Facts” about Lance: His weight, the length of both his tail and himself and everything else Lance was sure they really didn't need to know, nor did anyone seem to really care for what she had to say.

Because humans are ruthless. They only care about themselves and saw what they wanted to, pretending they cared about everything around them when they don't...or so Lance thought.

But Lance was really a beautiful sight, leaving everyone dumbstruck by his beauty: He had short brown hair that slightly floated about when he stood still but flattened when he swam, slightly pointed ears that were similar to a Christmas elf’s, bright ocean-blue eyes that sparkled when the soft sunlight hit them from above the exposed tank above. If it weren’t for both the blue-green scale like spots here and there over his lower stomach and above his left elbow and for the blue web between his fingers he could’ve looked like a normal human…except he had a long blue tail and fin that sparkled green here and there when the sunlight hit it just like the scales over his body. There was also his gills at the side of his neck on each side and his slightly pointed ears.

So maybe he COULDN’T pass as a human with all the mystical features he held but Lance would never change them for anything.

After Sarah finished on her "Facts" about Lance, or so she thought were facts at all according to Lance, he starts to go along to whatever "Fun-Facts" she threw out there. Whether it be showing how kind he was with his fellow sea animal neighbors by hugging Hunk the sea lion who came up to him for a hug, or by flashing his teeth to reveal four sharp front teeth that was used for eating certain kinds of fish. 

This went on for at least 5 to 6 minutes more before their special performance came to an end, Sarah having introduced herself once again and thanking the audience for coming in before the doors to the room opening for public viewing for the rest of the day.

This was Lance’s life.

Here in the globe-like tank is where he lived instead of the deep depths of the fresh blue ocean that stretched beyond anything that existed. If it wasn't in the tanks, it was that hell hole of a science lab he wished he wouldn't have to go back to.

He didn’t even know what the ocean was like, never having swam in it or even knowing what it looks like or feels like. He could only imagine how it was when Hunk and the others described it to him, every fish he knew having been taken from their very home. He saw it similar to the waters he swam in from the aquarium but much more broader and endless on paths. It was so much more beautiful and free in his imagination, he even went as far as to imagine the huge family he was sure he had back in the ocean…

But it wasn't like he didn't have a family here in the aquarium. He had Hunk, the adorable and very huggable sea lion who had grown up with him since they had both arrived at the aquarium. They were together every single day and the staff noticed how inseparable they were. They didn’t have the heart to separate the two, especially with how depressed they both were from their past so they had kept the two together ever since.

There was also Shay the sea otter, the very one who started and always starts their special performances. There were days when she was usually put with Lance and Hunk in the main tank along with some other friendly mammals when she wasn’t with the other sea otters. Those days they would relax as much as they could from time to time and chat about what the sea otter had experienced since she was kept outside the majority of the time. Lance wasn’t allowed to even breath the outside air, nor were to have any type of close interactions with the humans since the scientist worried something might happen to him. 

They couldn’t POSSIBLY let anything happen to their precious test subject, now could they?

Lance considered every fish here in the aquarium family though because they were all victim to this prison, they all came and originated from the same place...the ocean.

Well, he at least considered anything from the size of Hunk and bigger family that is. Anything else smaller than him is considered food for Lance, excluding a couple of certain fish and mammals here and there.

[When is feeding time, I'm starving...] Hunk groans as he floated with his back towards the humans below him next to Lance who did the same as him. The sun was shining down on the tank from outside, making the water slightly sparkle inside the tank and giving Lance the sunlight he needed to give himself a little tan. It's been a while since the sun had been out, a week to be precise thanks to the raining weather but today the sun was out on full blast and drying everything that had been drenched with the rain.

[I feel you buddy. If they don't feed us soon I'm gonna have no choice but to snag some of these little guys in here.]

[Lance, please don't do that. Remember the last time you ate half of that angelfish family? The staff was really pissed at you...so was the other half of the angelfish family. They tried to attack you!]

[Oh please, those guys aren’t hard to catch in the ocean. And besides, the staff are going to be pretty shocked once they find little baby angelfish swimming around reeeal soon so they don't have to worry about their little population decreasing] Lance says shrugging his shoulders before turning around to face the humans standing below them. He swims up to the glass and waves at a family of 4 who were standing literally right below him. The little girl who looked around 5 or 6 reaches her hand up to attempt at reaching the glass but it was obvious her tiny height would never allow her, her big Green eyes wide with amazement as she made eye contact with Lance. Lance places his hand on the glass, despite her being pretty far down he was still able to hear her small squeal of excitement from his recognition. He did have extremely good hearing senses, which were just as sensitive so when she squealed he tried not to make a face to the loud noise ringing in his sensitive ears. He still found her adorable though, he couldn’t get over the kids reactions every time they saw him. It was as if they saw their own god looking down upon them.

[Seriously Lance don't touch the fish. The feeders came back really late to feed us and I'm not about to go on yet another fasting session because of you...] Hunk warned as he swam next Lance, twirling around to try and make the same people smile or react, succeeding when he sees a couple of people point and wave at him.

This was all pure entertainment for the humans...but not for Lance.

For every smile he had to put up and fake, the more his hate for humans grew. He hated all of this: the stupid humans, the stupid performances, the stupid tank, the stupid aquarium and its inhumane nature of trapping marine life for their wanting and research.

He hated being stuck there.

He hated everything.

He just wanted to be free.

If he could've, he would've probably already taken his own life a long time ago and end this misery of a life he was forced to live…

But he couldn't. 

For the sake of his aquarium family and his real family somewhere out in the vast ocean...he couldn't leave them like this, to suffer like this on their own. He didn’t have the heart to be selfish and to think of himself and his needs only.

So here he was, doing the only thing he COULD do: suffer alongside them...because it's what his mother would’ve most likely done.


	2. The Kogane Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be honest I already have the next 2 chapters written out but I like to go over my work, just in case I need to add or fix anything...and it won't be any fun to post everything in one shot soo yeah (^_^)'
> 
> But I'll naturally be posting once a week on Wednesdays, unless I finish a chapter early and feel like it'll be alright to post early but i like keeping things on a schedule. I'm posting the first three chapters before this upcoming monday early though because i've already written them out and they're somewhat fixed up so if you see any errors I apologize before hand and do let me know~!
> 
> {There is a slight mention of suicide in this chapter}
> 
> I hope you like the chapter though~! :D

Keith was exhausted, both physically and mentally.

For the past 2 weeks he had been sitting at his computer desk with his eyes glued to his laptop for the majority of the day, not moving from that spot unless if it were for the following reasons:

1\. He was extremely hungry (sometimes he would even go most the day without eating and ignore the fact he was starving if it weren't for his older brother Shiro dragging him off the chair)

2\. He needed to use the bathroom (he would try to hold in as much as he could though before going)

3\. He needed to shower (with Shiro literally having to pry him away from the desk of course. Shiro had walked inside Keith’s room once when he didn’t shower for 2 days straight and never again did he let him skip a shower)

4\. Sleep (thanks to Shiro once again, Struggling as always to get him away from his computer...)

5\. Or work (having been working at a cafe a couple of blocks away from his home for a couple of years now)

Keith didn’t like giving his brother more work than what he already had in his own life and Keith didn’t need anyone to take care of him either, seeing he was a grown adult himself and was capable of caring for himself. Keith usual gets so carried away and sucked into his own work that he doesn’t really remember for doing the little in-between things a human has to do on a daily basis for survival. 

Now don’t get him wrong, just because Shiro has to remind him to leave his computer from time to time that doesn’t mean Keith doesn’t leave his own computer on his own when he needs to. He does…just when he feels like it’s extremely necessary.

But why was Keith this way? Well, there was two reasons: The first would be that he was in the middle of a story he was very confident it was going to make it pretty big in a huge writing contest he had entered. It was being held by a publishing company that was very popular for its works and the prizes were pretty big itself. There were a lot of entrees due to the grand prizes for the top 5 winners that were picked, everyone having their aim on the grand prize of their story being published into a book AND ten thousand dollars.

Yep, $10,000 dollars.

But Keith wasn’t in it for the money. He simply wanted the publishing of his story because his dream WAS to be an authentic writer, a writer who wrote from the heart and not out of greed for fame and money. It's all Keith ever wanted to do anyway, to become a writer known throughout the world...just like his mother. 

Not only was she well known for her romance novels that varied in many creative ways and different genres, whether it be about your typical romance between two humans or mythical creatures that varied from wolves, vampires, ghost or anything really but she was well known for having been one of the five people to meet the very first mermaid to be brought into the rocky surface of the earth before she passed away 14 years ago in a horrific car accident.

"Their Diary". The title of an unpublished book his mother had typed up before her accident as well.

To sum it up in a very simple summary: The story was based off of a fisherman who was rescued by a Mermaid from a boat wreckage and the two ended up falling in love with each other but they faced many complications within their relationship due to them being from two completely different worlds...sounds like your typical Little Mermaid mythical-romance novel, right?

But it's not.

Every single word written in the book was something that actually happened. Every single event, every single phrase spoken in that book had actually happened and been said, for his mother had interviewed the very main characters of the story before they died a very strange death. Both the scientist and society itself had called it an act of love when the mermaid had strangely stopped breathing after two months of separation from the human man. It kind of made sense with how the scientist banned the human man from seeing the mermaid at all.  
She had been brought in by the scientist for testing and whatnot for two weeks before they decided to team up with the biggest aquarium in the city to display her to the world. They didn’t allow the man in the aquarium either because they knew any kind of interaction they had could lead to the fisherman attempting to free her back into the ocean waters.

He had attempted to do so the first time…and it turned out to be his last too.

The man had committed suicide after two weeks of attempting to sneak into the aquarium and failing, unable to accept the fact he would never see his beloved once again but before doing so he had talked to Keith’s mother. She had gained enough of his trust for him to tell her everything, having promised him she would portray the truth and nothing but that to the world. 

Down from their first meeting, to their adventures out in the sea and how they fell in love…all the way until their last goodbye. Hours after she had walked out of his house that very day he had come up on the news, having been announced dead to the world.

Keith would know all of this because he had read that unpublished book. He had read every single word his mother had typed up into her computer after passing, having been the only person in possession of it and he made sure no one knew of its existence…for now at least.

He had sworn to his mother’s grave that once he had enough knowledge and was an official writer known by the world he would publish her story. He would publish it so that the world would know what kind of cruel beings the scientist and aquarium staff were but since he was still very inexperienced, he had stashed away everything related to the mermaid case in a place only he knew of.

But as Keith mentioned before, his mother was one out of the 5 people who was able to meet the Mermaid and was able to meet her continuously thanks to her brother who was a ichthyologist and sneaked her in when no one was around for maybe 2 to 3 hours once a week. After the fisherman committed suicide she had continued to speak with the mermaid and she too had told her everything she wanted the world to know.

Weeks later the mermaid followed suite in death, the world having been devastated by the news.

After Keith’s mother passed away Keith would read the book to himself aloud, not only trying to understand its contents little by little but he tried to replace his own voice with her soothing one in his head before laying down to cry himself to sleep the rest of the night. He wouldn't even let Shiro read it to him or any book at that because it wouldn't have felt the same for him. This had continued for around 6 years, Keith crying himself to sleep every night, mumbling how much he missed his mother before falling asleep until he finally reached the point where he felt himself completely dried out and void of his emotions. Eventually he managed to bring himself back to normal as the years passed, knowing he couldn’t sulk for the rest of his life and if he wanted to publish his mother’s story, there was no time for him to fall into depression of any kind. Along the way of the passing years he had realized he couldn't replace his mother's voice in his head anymore, he had forgotten what it sounded like after so many years of not hearing it anymore.

Lately Keith had been curious to what his mother’s voice was like, especially today for some strange reason as he leaned back against his chair and looked up to the white ceiling with his arms hanging loose on either side of his chair. His hair was a mess from ruffling it around in frustration a couple of hours ago, the urge for sleep just a tad bit unbearable and he tries not to keep his eyes closed for too long when he closes them. Hell, if he could he'd fall asleep right then and there for a good couple of hours but Shiro knew him all too well and his eyes open in slight surprise for he was brought out his deep thoughts when a knock came to his door. Shiro opens the door just enough to poke his head in and instantly looks to the desk because of course Keith would be there if not anywhere else in the house.

"You alive buddy?" Shiro asks with a small smile.

"Am I?" Keith grumbles without moving an inch, still looking up at the ceiling.

Shiro chuckles as he opens the door to fully walk in now, walking up behind Keith to place his hands on his shoulders and give them a squeeze that wasn't too soft but wasn't rough either, hoping to give the younger one the lacking energy Shiro could clearly see he needed. Keith opens his eyes to see his brother hovering over him with a smile and he returns a very tired one.

"You're looking somewhat alive to me. How're you holding up on that story of yours?"

"I might have at least 3 to 4 chapters left to go but the writer’s block is kind of kicking in but I hope I can finish in time before the deadline," Keith says while shrugging his shoulders, indicating for Shiro to give him a massage that was indeed well needed. Shiro complies and begins to rub at his shoulders, Keith closing his eyes again and enjoying what felt like a million dollar spa massage. Shiro did had the muscles for it, that's for sure.

"It’ll go well, your writing is amazing-" Shiro started, stopping his massage and causing Keith to open his eyes again.

"Mom would be really proud of you right now if she saw you. As a matter of fact I’m sure she’s watching you right now and giving you the strength you need too."

Keith's eyes slightly widen in surprise to his words before he sits up on the chair, Shiro letting go so Keith can turn his seat around so that he was now facing Shiro.

"I didn't do anything for her to be proud of...at least not yet but I know I hope all goes well too," He says giving Shiro a small smile before finally lifting himself off the computer chair. After so many hours from sitting down on what he thought was a pretty comfortable chair he stretched his arms out above him, his whole body feeling extremely sore and a bit heavy despite his thoughts of the chair. He could definitely do a stretching session with Shiro right now before he tosses himself into bed for a well-deserved nap.

"Seeing how it’s-” Shiro looks to his black wrist watch, “2:35 and the summer sun is shining oh so beautifully, we can go for a-"

"Nap?" Keith interrupts him with the hope that Shiro wouldn't drag him out anywhere, especially in this sleep deprived state he was currently in.

"No. We can go for a really nice walk to enjoy the weather, like how the rest of the human race does when it’s nice outside…You've been stuck to your chair for the past 2 weeks without any kind of sunlight Keith. I seriously recommend you do some walking at least, you’ll regret it on the long run if you don’t buddy."

Keith groans as he lets his arms drop to his sides once again, frowning at Shiro as he says,

"Do you not see these bags under my eyes?? Sleep is very needed at the moment Shiro, I'll collapse from both sleep deprivation and that terrifying summer heat…I’ll do simple stretches here at home with you instead?" He says looking up to Shiro with a very small pout, or so Keith thought he was pouting because Keith wasn’t good at convincing Shiro when it came to these kind of things. Keith was terrible at pulling a “Puppy Face”, always looking as if he was angry when attempted, even when he was little. Despite that being so Shiro never bullied him over it because he and their mother were the only ones who would usually fall victim for the strange looking expression. His brother was also a work-out maniac for god’s sake, Keith sometimes could never keep up with him when he tagged along with Shiro on morning jogs even though Shiro tells him he doesn’t have to. Yeah, he didn’t have to keep up with him but Keith didn’t like being left behind all alone either so he tries to keep up regardless.

"Come on Keith, that’s not going to work on me today cause I have to go out anyways. Stop the complaining and put your shoes on, we're walking to the Holts," Shiro says patting Keith's arm before turning and walking out of the room, Keith groaned tiredly from the not so hard impact of Shiro’s ‘Pat’ but his body was so frail at the moment he felt like a rock just hit his arm.

Because of Shiro's intense work outs and training sessions, he was a little on the muscular side...Well, more than a little. Shiro's dream was to become a professional boxer and so far he was definitely getting there. 

Quicker than Keith achieving his own dream, which seemed almost impossible in his opinion. 

He was a very good fighter, even his very own coach of 10 years loved Shiro for his amazing skills and didn't want to let him go no matter what. Shiro’s coach would do anything to make Shiro stay under his training and it wasn't because Shiro would hopefully bring in good money if he's introduced as his coach later on in his career but it was hard to find someone like Shiro who really loved doing what he loved with pure passion and wasn’t in it just for the money like the majority of them. Shiro was definitely one of a kind in the sport of boxing.

Keith groans for the hundredth time before getting off his handy dandy chair and going to grab the easiest thing he could slide on his feet. There was no way Shiro was going to leave him home at this point because that’s just how he was. 

As much as Keith wanted to go as comfortable as he could with opened toed slippers, the walk to the Holts family wasn't very close to their own so he slips on his low converses before he walks out of his slightly dark room and goes straight for the kitchen. He hadn’t realized his room was so darkly lit before stepping out of it, his eyes slightly squinting to the brightness of the sun coming through the windows all over the house. As he walks into the kitchen he finds Shiro leaning against the counter, fingers tapping away on the screen as he seemed to be texting someone.

"Why are we going over there again?" Keith asks as he walks to the fridge to pull out a bottle of water and closes the fridge door to lean on it.

"Matt texted me and wanted to tell me something in person so I’m going to stop by before going to afternoon practice."

"But he invited you, not me…" he mumbles as he uncaps his bottle of water and takes a sip before closing it back up. Keith wasn't usually this lazy, he would usually agree to doing such a walk but today just wasn't one of those days for him.

"Oh come on, they literally live like 6 to 7 blocks down from here, you won't die from doing a little walking," Shiro says before shoving his phone in his pocket and making his way for the door. Keith sighed before taking another sip of his water and following after Shiro. After locking the door behind him, Keith walks up to Shiro and they start to walk down the streets, greeting some of their known neighbors on the way. Shiro then suggested they go for a light jog, Keith begging him not to do this to him but as always Shiro doesn't take no for an answer.

He either jogs or he gets left behind.

So jogging they did for the remaining 3 blocks, when reaching the familiar home they walk up to the front door and Shiro rings the doorbell. They wait a couple of seconds, Keith glaring at Shiro for making him do such an awful thing at his current state as he tries to regain his slight loss of breath from the jog.

"You'll thank me later after you shower and eat something when we get back home," Shiro says grinning at Keith before turning his attention back to the door when hearing the locks and chain being undone. 

Once the door opened they were greeted by Pidge, one of their childhood friends whose real name was actually Katie but she preferred to be called by her given nickname. Yes, it was a strange nickname that was given to her by her very own brother but she grew accustomed to it and ever since then she preferred to be introduced with that name instead of her original.

"Hey guys, it's been a while since you've stopped by,” She says turning her eyes to Keith, her words obviously meant for Keith. Keith rolls his eyes in response but still flashes her a small smile. The two have been friends ever since their brothers became friends, Shiro always going over the Holts to either hang out or for home and projects so while they did that him and Pidge would simply just sit around or go for walks outside just to hang out.

"Hey pidge. Is your brother home?" Shiro asks with a smile. She nods before letting them in, Keith also greeting her as he walked in. She leads them into the living room where her brother, Matt was sitting with a laptop on his lap, his hands typing away quickly on the keys and unaware of their presence at first. He seemed to be pretty into whatever he had been typing up because the three of them had been standing at the entrance of the living room for a couple of seconds now, simply watching him and he had still not noticed until Pidge clears her throat. 

“Katie, if you’re going to ask me to use my laptop for the hundredth time I swear I’ll-“ Matt had started as he finishes up his last sentence before looking up, his slight frown instantly turned upside down when his eyes landed on the two brothers.

"Hey there Koganes! It's nice to see you come out Keith, haven't seen you in about a month? Maybe more?" Matt says raising his hand to wave a small hello to him. Keith does the same before sitting down on the couch opposite from where Matt sat, Shiro sitting himself next to Matt and placing a kiss to his cheek.

Yes, the both of them were dating. They have been for the past 4 years, Matt being the one to confess first. Shiro had also liked him and had asked him out the second Matt had confessed his feelings for him.

"Hey babe, what was it that you wanted to tell me? You seemed excited through text," Shiro asks wrapping his arm over Matt's shoulders, Matt placing his laptop on the empty spot next to him on the couch before leaning himself closer to him, looking up to him with excitement in his eyes as he remembered why he had spammed his boyfriend with cap lock letters and a load of emoji’s.

"Oh, right! So to make this story extremely short and easy for you both to understand since no one seems to ever understand what I’m saying when I talk about my work-" Matt says looking from Shiro to Keith, then back to Shiro, "Remember how I always told you I’ve always wanted to work in the Ichthyologist department on the Merman case?"

They both nod in unison. It was literally all he had talked about doing ever since they had both met the guy and apparently he had that dream ever since the mermaid discovery.

"Well, I got in as an Intern~!"

"That's really great Matt, I'm proud of you," Shiro says pulling Matt in for a side hug, Matt giggling as he let himself be pulled in by Shiro. Both Keith and Pidge frowned at the sight, not having anything against their relationship at all since both Keith and Pidge had an interest in their same respective genders but the two of them were always like this in front of them, even in public.

Ever since the news came out of a mermaid being real years ago, Matt had wanted to be an ichthyologist. He was a big believer when it came to mythical creatures and anything related ever since he was little and he was working on becoming an official Ichthyologist. It was very difficult trying to find a way into the Mermaid case since it was a group that dealt with delicate information that could lead to findings of other mythical creatures or more than that, it was the government’s information.  
He had went to Pidge earlier yelling in excitement after receiving the call a couple of hours ago and right after he texted Shiro to invite him over to tell him the great news in person, which is how they ended up cuddling in each other’s arms at the very moment. If anything they looked like a newlywed couple with the way they looked at each other.

"Seriously guys, give us a break and take it somewhere else..."

"I second that. I didn't get dragged here to come watch this," Keith says agreeing to Pidge's protest, the two of them not paying mind to them as they continued to giggle and mumbles things to each other that they could go without hearing really.

Matt and Shiro turn their heads to Keith when he stood up from the couch, Keith getting ready to leave the living room with Pidge but Matt had Keith stop in his tracks and his attention back on him when he says,

"Before you guys storm out like the 5 year olds you are-“

“Screw you,” Pidge interrupts with a frown. Matt frowns back at her before continuing, 

“I forgot to mention that as a welcoming gift to the group I got 4 tickets to see the whole aquarium! Usually to see the Mermaid display you have to pay a separate fee and it's seriously pricey but I got those for free too~! It’s for tomorrow, you guys want to go?"

"Not interested," Keith says turning around once again to walk out but was stopped once again by Shiro who says,

"That sounds like fun. We can count this as a date for us, right?"

"If you two are going then I'll pass," Keith says raising a brow as he folds his arms over his chest.

"I'll go," Pidge says unfolding an arm from her chest and raising it a bit, looking to Keith and says with the slight shrug of her shoulders,

"I've heard really good reviews about it and even though I’m not a fish nerd like Matt-“

“Hey,” Matt says frowning with a small pout of his lips. She ignores him and continues,

“Tt's free. Those tickets really are pricey and to get them for free is a pretty cool deal. I’ll only go if you two keep your distance from me though, the two of you together is pure embarrassment."

Matts frown doesn’t leave his face, Pidge sticking her tongue out at him before they all look to Keith, waiting for his final response.

"Come on, it'll be fun. You should treat yourself to this, it's free tickets and you've been cooped up at home for way too long. Think of it as a one day vacation from the writing," Shiro says with a small smile, hoping that would help in changing Keith's mind.

“Yeah, we haven’t hung out in a while Keith. We can always ditch these two somewhere in the back if that’s what you’re worried about…because I am…”

“My gosh Katie, You make it seem like we’re some kind of horny couple who can’t take our hands off of each other or something,” Mat says unwrapping his arms from around Shiro’s torso to turn himself in her direction to glare at her this time.

“Isn’t it true?” she says with a raised brow.

“Isn’t it?” Shiro repeats with a teasing grin, Matt turning his head to Shiro to frown at him now with disbelief and hits him on the shoulder. He scoots himself away from Shiro for agreeing with his sister and crosses his arms, Shiro attempting to talk him back into a hug but he wasn’t succeeding.

Keith stays silent for a couple of seconds, unsure of what to do.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go to the very aquarium where his mother had dedicated most of her time in with the mermaid, to the aquarium where he felt he wasn’t ready to visit until he was ready to finish what his mother had left behind. He felt he wouldn’t be very comfortable walking around in there and he didn’t want to stir up the unnecessary feelings he felt when losing his mother years ago. 

Just the thought of it made him slightly shiver and it wasn’t in a pleasant way.

When Shiro finally succeeds in bringing Matt back into a hug he looks up to Keith, who he could tell was a bit silent and Shiro could sense that Keith really didn’t want to go. He knew why too.

Keith could tell Shiro was about to tell him he didn’t have to go with the way he looked him in the eyes but before he could say anything Keith beats him to it.

“I’ll go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one more thing I wanna say: For those of you who are up to date with seasons one and two of Voltron and preparing for season 3, 
> 
> HAPPY WATCHING~!!
> 
> After watching it, please don't spoil anything for those who haven't watched it yet, you wouldn't want someone to do that to you but in overall, I hope everyone enjoys it once it's released! I myself will be watching it when it's released and I don't think I'm ready...
> 
> I am actually internally spazzing and I have been bothering my whole family about it but they only keep calling me a nerd...I'm a proud one though~! :'D  
> It would've been nice to watch it with someone else who likes it but i know no one in person who likes Voltron it...like, at all. Everyone I know just sees it as something some robot kids tv show (and it obviously it) but it's a really good one that can be enjoyed by not only kids but anyone of any age (TT_TT)
> 
> But anyways, HAPPY WATCHING~!! <3


	3. I Can Hear You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so i'll be changing my update days to Wednesday since my Mondays all of a sudden became busy (TT^TT) But wednesday it is!
> 
> So this chapter has some minor foul language but nothing crazy, its pretty simple really. Also, this may contain a Kidge moment (is that what their ship is called? I honestly do not remember so please don't hurt meh!) but the two or simply BFF's, nothing more or less~
> 
> This chapter is, like...very long. This chapter's word count is 7,692...I really got too carried away but every chapter won't be less than 3,000, that I can guarantee you (unless informed otherwise) but i hope you guys still like the chapter~! :'D
> 
> Another quick reminder about the whole dialogue thing. When Lance communicates with Keith or anyone else, it's telepathically and never verbally.
> 
> "so instead of this"
> 
> [It'll be this]
> 
> {I forgot to mention that an Ichthyologist is an animal scientist (or zoologist) that studies and deals with fish. They specialize in the branch of biology dealing with animals. If by any chance I am wrong, please correct me so I can fix it!}

Keith was the first to arrive at the entrance of Altean Aquarium, he being the only one completely free and unoccupied from anything work related for the day. Luckily it was Keith’s day off of work, when not at home holed up in his room typing away at his laptop. He worked part-time at the Cafe 4 to 5 blocks away from his house. He had realized that where he worked was pretty much in between his home and the aquarium in walking distance and if he had been working he could’ve simple walked from work to the aquarium. That also meant he lived pretty close to the aquarium without even realizing it so he didn’t have to take the car him and Shiro share. 

He had been working at the café though ever since he had graduated high school, not having slipped right into college like the rest of his school mates did because he didn’t quite feel like it was necessary to waste his time in school for another 4 years just to do what he loved. Yeah, it could’ve given him the extra shove he needed to get to his dream a little quicker but he preferred not to sit in a room with a bunch of strangers once again, wanting nothing more than to spare the uncomfortableness of having to speak with others about pretty much anything and everything they thought would make them friends. He preferred to take the much rougher road and didn’t mind the struggle he had went through, he was currently going through and what was surely to come in the future.

Keith was just that antisocial.

He had always been, even when he was little. Keith was an introvert who loved staying indoors instead of listening to and watching the world around him destroy itself. For the HUMANS to destroy themselves. He would never stick around outside for too long, going to the store from time to time, jogging with Shiro, hanging with the Holts and work having only been an exception because as much as being an introvert had its many pro’s he was still an adult. He couldn’t just live off of Shiro for the rest of his boring and dull life since he felt he burdened Shiro more than enough after their mother had passed. He wasn’t heartless to do such a thing to him after everything he had done for him ever since that day, even if Shiro tells him from time to time he never felt that way and never would. 

He would’ve had met Shiro at the gym after his practice with his coach, along with the Holt siblings and taken the bus with them to the aquarium like they had originally planned but Shiro had gotten a text from Matt that had explained he would be stuck in class for an extra hour. Shiro not wanting to leave him behind decided that him and Pidge take two tickets and go ahead without them, Keith more than happy to oblige to that since he didn’t have to watch or hear the two flirting with each other.  
As mentioned before he didn’t mind their relationship, if anything he found them to be a pretty cute couple but sometimes when they were together they liked to tease and embarrass both him and Pidge. Especially in public. In so many ways that would have him and Pidge power walking away from them as fast as they could.

But if Keith were to be really honest, he really didn’t want to be there. He had his reasons but the main one out of all the silly ones that had to do with not being a fan of going out in general was because this place reminded him too much of his mother.  
How she had always been going in and out of the aquarium for the mermaid case, the very little and fragmented memories of her taking him and Shiro along once in a blue moon but Keith strangely couldn’t remember anything much of those days, almost as if he had amnesia or something of the sort. Despite being unable to remember how her voice sounded like he could remember her rare yet beautiful smile that came with the warm hugs she would give him or ask of him from time to time to cheer him up or give her energy when she was tired-

Dammit, He really didn’t want to be here at all...

He didn't cancel last minute as he desperately wanted to though because he didn't want to show Shiro he was avoiding the place due to their past. He didn't want to break the hard work he had put into conserving those harsh and lonely feelings that had him feeling he was drowning, suffocating and folding in on himself after so many years.

He didn’t want his brother to worry that he could possibly sink back into any type of depression, just like after they lost their mother because those days were pretty dark for the both of them since they were pretty close to their mother. 

Especially for Keith. 

He also didn’t want to let down Pidge and have her go through the rather large looking place alone after having agreeing to go. Little did he know that she was approaching him from behind, Keith having been very deep in thought to even take notice of her presence and if weren’t for Pidge placing her hands on his shoulders he would’ve pondered deeper into his thoughts. Despite being startled he was grateful for her sudden approach, he didn’t need to fall into unnecessary thoughts.

“Why do you look so out of it? Did you break night again?” she asks while squeezing his shoulders a bit before letting her arms fall back down to her sides and walks around him to face him. He gives her a small smile as he nods and says while pushing his hands into his pockets,

“Yeah but I got enough sleep so I’m fine. It’s just this unbearable heat that I can’t stand.”

Despite Pidge being his one and only closest friend he had never trusted anyone with his thoughts and emotions. It all went back to not wanting to burden anyone and even though he had told Pidge about his life growing up without his mother and her slight interaction with the mermaid, he hadn’t told her about his mother’s unfinished book regarding the first mermaid. That was confidential information that couldn’t fall into the hands of anyone until he had published it himself, especially to the scientist themselves and it wasn’t like he didn’t trust Matt, who was now a part of that very group but he had to be as cautious as he could. It was delicate information that the scientist wouldn’t want getting released.

At least part of the information that is…

He didn’t completely lie to her though. The sun had been pretty strong since early in the morning and he was pretty sure it was around 90 degrees so standing in the heat for the past 15 minutes or so had Keith craving to enter the building already and only for that reason.

“I know what you mean, the heat this summer has been crazy hot…let’s hurry up and go in before we catch a tan,” she says while turning beginning to walk towards the doors, fanning her face with her hand while doing so and Keith follows next to her.

“We? What tan would YOU catch? You know very well you’ll just catch a sun burn,” Keith says with a small grin, Pidge turning her head to glare at him with furrowed brows.

“Oh shut up you show off. At least I didn’t catch a suntan in the shape of a mullet on my back last year~”

Pidge was the one with the grin now and Keith sending a glare her way. He would never forget that day when he went to the beach with Shiro and the Holt family, for he had slept under the sun with his slightly long hair loose on his back and when he woke to tie it up, well…he knew Pidge would never let him live that down. She had even taken a picture of him tying up his hair and the mark of his hair was nice and clear to see. Luckily he was able to cover it with a shirt but never again would he go to the beach with Pidge. That was a lesson well learned.

Before they could get any closer to the doors he looks up at the enormous view before them. He had forgotten how huge the place was but he had always liked how well-structured the building was. It was literally in the shape of a snow globe, the part grounded to the floor brown and rocky with a glass globe-like tank right on top and in the center of it. Instead of the water inside of the globe being mixed with glitter and a figure glued in the center like any other snow globe, it was filled with fishes of many different kinds that were clearly visible from outside but not clear enough to identify their species. The outside view was honestly more than enough for Keith to look at but even if he wanted to change his mind last minute he was a couple of seconds too late to voice himself, Pidge having already given the two tickets to the ticket collector at the entrance of the aquarium and handing her two V.I.P passes to hang around their necks. She hands Keith his pass and hangs hers around her neck before walking in, Keith doing the same while trying to hold back a frown.

Once they walked in they were already greeted with the first few mini tanks filled with fish against the rock-like walls and a staff handing out pamphlets to get around the aquarium but they both stood standing still with contentment washing through them, enjoying the cool air of the AC’s filling the area. Luckily for them this was an indoor aquarium because they were both not about to walk around with the scorching hot sun burning down on them as if it wanted to melt them like popsicles. Despite the place being semi-full and a bit crowded, completely opposite to Keith’s comfort zone, the AC’s seemed to be pretty high for the sole purpose that people wouldn’t sweat during hot summer days like today even in such an atmosphere with plenty of people around. Keith also didn’t want to catch another tan for Pidge to make fun of, he’s already given her too much to make fun of him with and he wasn’t about to add another to her list.

Once they felt they were cooled down enough, they grab a pamphlet from the staff who wished for them to enjoy their time before they began to make their way in slowly. A little too slowly if you were to ask Keith but as they progressed through the rock-like tunnels, he had realized that rushing through wouldn’t get them any closer to the end because as he looked down at the pamphlet HOLY cheese whizz, he hadn’t remembered the place being so damn long! Either that or his memory was really messed up but he had a feeling It must have been re-constructed or something because Keith was sure this trip through the aquarium was most likely going to take up a little more than half the day.

He also didn’t want to rush through because of how intrigued Pidge seemed to be by the different kinds of fish as they walked by. He couldn’t help but let a small smirk slip on his lips as he remembered Pidge’s insult to her brother the previous day as she called him a ‘Fish Nerd’ yet here she was, watching the little family of fishes swim by with a hint of amazement in her eyes. Now Keith had something to tease her about in the future and that made him feel a little better about coming her.

Just a little though.

“This…Longfin Bannerfish is it? It looks like your brother,” Pidge says pointing at a pretty small fish with black, white and very little yellow stripes on it with a grin as they both watched different colored fishes swim by slowly.

“It really does…and that one looks like you,” Keith says pointing to a fish a bit larger than the one she had pointed out with its outlines blue yet it was a pretty colorful critter. It wasn’t the best looking either, which is why Pidge scrunches her nose in slight disgust after looking at the panel in front of them with the fishes name and looks up at Keith.

“What the hell Keith, a Blue Mandarin?? That thing is ugly!”

“Yeah, and?” he says with a small grin before Pidge punches him in the arm and despite her being a tad bit shorter than Keith, she could really pack a punch. Literally. But lucky for him she didn’t put much force into the punch so he is left with a very small sting on his upper arm.

“But seriously, I think it looks pretty cool. The colors are nice and all…”

“Keith?”

He turns his head to look at Pidge, her deadpan expression having him raise a brow before she spoke again,

“I’m glad you think I’m cool and everything but you have VERY bad taste in fish selection…both fish AND guys.”

“I d-do not!” Keith nearly said in a tone louder than his inside voice. Luckily he didn’t grab anyone’s attention because his face was pretty red and he didn’t need anyone trying to figure out what they were talking about.

“Keith, admit it. You ended up dating the most weirdest, wackiest people back in high school and I’m pretty sure you’d pick the weirdest person in this whole aquarium,” She says with a small laugh in her voice while folding her arms over her chest.  
As much as Keith wanted to keep denying Pidge’s false accusation, he knew that what she said was right. 

Well, part of what she said.

Keith couldn’t deny the fact that back in high school he was indeed asked out by the most weirdest people and Keith being pretty weird himself, something else he had to admit, had accepted dating those very people. He was pretty popular amongst the females because of his ‘Looks’ but he was also just as popular with the males as well. Both straight and not. For both good and bad reasons but as Keith thought about his high school dating selections he could see why Pidge would say that.

Keith being stubborn though wouldn’t give in to her words without trying to prove her wrong because as an adult with experience he felt he could make better choices now, which leads to him copying Pidges stance and leans closer to her a bit to whisper,

“I can pick out a very decent person within this room if I had to!”

“Oh yeah? Give it your best shot then,” She says with slightly narrowed eyes and her grin never falling from her lips. Keith lets out a small groan as he debates whether if he should go along with her bet but before he realized it, he was already scanning around the room around them for the most decent looking guy he could find by appearance. Or maybe even a cute guy but Keith had to prove her wrong somehow, he didn’t need her telling everyone what she had just told him.

After a couple of seconds of watching people come and go or stand in front of certain fish tanks with pink cheeks, Keith finally spots a guy who he was positive was good looking both in and out.

“How about that guy? The one with the black hair,” he whispers while nodding his head and discreetly as he could in the direction where the man had been standing. Pidge follows his eyes and when she sees him she examines him for a couple of seconds before whispering back,

“Look-wise he seems alright but if you look a little closer, he has the face of an asshole. He looks way too serious to be in a place like this but the way he’s dressed shows he has a very good income. His brand in clothes is pretty expensive so-“

“Pidge, what…isn’t that a little too mean?”

“Aren’t you a little too soft?” she deadpans as she looks to Keith.

“I’m not soft!” Keith says with a small frown now. He knew he was anything but that, everyone that knew him, which was very little, knew that Keith wasn’t the soft type. If anything, Keith was always with a serious expression that prevented almost everyone from approaching him but it wasn’t like Keith was in a bad mood of any sort. Like everyone else, Keith had his good and bad days. The majority of the time he simply gets lost in thoughts, whether they’re good or bad ones and he doesn’t realize the expressions he makes. The rest of the times he hated the earth in whole, with humans and all and simply wished he could isolate himself, live in an isolated island far away from everyone. Hell, he would even go as far as living in an isolated planet if he could but that was obviously impossible. 

“Why did I even agree to even do that, let’s just go already,” Keith nearly mumbles loud enough for just the two of them to hear before he began to walk ahead of Pidge. 

“Hey come on, give it one more try! I promise I won’t give heavy critique like before so-“

“Pidge just drop it, I just want to get out of here already so…can we just hurry up?”

Crap, he didn’t mean to say that. Aloud. In a tone and expression that obviously showed he wasn’t enjoying any of this at all…and in a way that he was sure had Pidge feeling a bit bad since she didn’t respond to him either but he wouldn’t know because he had been at least 2 steps ahead from her. He was starting to feel like the biggest jerk the world had to offer because he knew Pidge was having a pretty good time, despite both of their likings for fish being very little but he knew that she had very little friends.

Just like him. 

They had both became close friends thanks to their rough childhood, both unable to make any friends as they grew older within the years but they had so much more in common than their painful pasts that brought them together.

And here he was, screwing up a perfect hang out with his only friend after a good month or so because he didn’t know how to control his anger. He blamed his uncontrollable feelings on the lack of sleep from the late night writing sessions he’s been indulged with and the whole contest because he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous about it.

It still wasn’t a sensible reason for Keith to be rude to her though and thanks to his idiot move, the dreadful feeling of not wanting to be where he was at the moment was slowly starting to surface and he tried ignoring it but he couldn’t. He also couldn’t ignore Pidge who kept walking somewhat behind him as they slowly continued to make their way through the tunnels.

This wasn’t something that happened very often but once in a blue moon and mostly when they don’t see each other in a long while. When it did though, it would almost feel like they were the kind of friends who don’t hang out very much and when they do, it’s filled with plenty of awkwardness and tension between them. The only difference with them is that they always quickly make up because they can’t usually stay mad at each other for more than a half hour.

Keith had been looking down at the pamphlet in his hand, the piece of paper seeming more interesting than the actual fishes he had passed by without even sparring a glance to them before he finally lifts his head with a soft huff. He stops to turn himself around and was almost surprised to see her hand outstretched towards him, Pidge must having wanted to stop him but luckily she didn’t have to.

“Hey, Um-“

“Sorry about that,” Pidge had cut him off before he could say anything because she knew he was going to apologize but she felt as if she needed to do so first.

“I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable in any way man. If you want, we can leave-“

“No!” Keith had, for the third time, nearly shouted and this time he managed to get some passerby’s to look at them with raised brows. He lets out a soft sigh before continuing in a in a more soft conversational tone,

“No, I…I don’t want to leave. You didn’t make me feel uncomfortable in any way either, it’s just-“ Keith places his hands into his pockets to ball them up into a soft fist before continuing in a slightly lower tone but still hearable for her,

“It’s just that I’m not very fond of this place is all…but I don’t want to rush through it either-“

For her sake of course but he was a pretty stubborn guy to admit something like that,

“But I’m ok, I promise. You seriously don’t have to apologize, I went along with it because I wasn’t uncomfortable with it…and because I’m not bad a picking guys…”

Pidge blinks a couple of times, expressionless as she listened to him before a smile forms on her lips and she lets out a soft chuckle. As much as she wanted to offer once again to leave she knew he wouldn’t want to, she knew this place reminded him of his mother and she had accidentally let that slip her mind until now but there was no point in arguing with him so she simply walks up next to him to nudge his arm with her elbow and says,

“Yeah, you need more practice buddy.”

Keith rolls his eyes before the two begin to walk side by side once again, Keith looking down at the pamphlet to see how much more walking they had left to reach the main and last event. Luckily for them, they were around 2 and a half tunnels away from the Merman exhibit and Keith wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

Even though he had very little memories of being here and no memories of ever meeting the mermaid his mother was so preoccupied with, something inside of him was trying to…warn him? He wasn’t sure how to explain his current mixed emotions or if it even had a word for it because one minute he was nervous, the next he felt anxious and after that he had felt hesitant, the urge to run back from where they entered being very strong.

But then he felt…aflutter. He still felt dithered but he felt a strange pull that wanted him inside that Merman exhibit as soon as possible. Maybe it was his tired mind playing games on him and wanting him to get over this so he could go home and sleep this all off but the clashing emotions were only draining the last of his energy much quicker. 

Or was it rejuvenating him? Because once they had finally went through the last of the tunnels and stood in front of the entrance to the exhibit, which just so happened to be the longest tunnels throughout the whole aquarium if he must say, he felt a rush of some type of energy running up from his toes to his head. It was such a strange and foreign feeling, having never felt this way before and the sudden switch of energy had almost made him dizzy but he manages to push the sudden feeling out of thought.

Just barely though.

“I’m just about ready to see what the hype is all about with this Merman. Let’s do this,” Pidge says clasping her hands together to stretch them above her head and lets out a soft groan. They were both already pretty tired from the walk so they hoped the last stop would be a resting stop before having to head back home. Keith especially hoped for the strange emotions to dissipate because he wasn’t like them at all. 

Especially the weird pull trying to get him to walk in already but his body seemed to have…frozen up.

His feet weren’t moving, completely glued to the floor beneath him even as Pidge began to make her way in. When she doesn’t see Keith next to her she turns around with a raised brow but then a grin forms on her lips as she asks,

“What’s wrong, you nervous about seeing a giant fish?”

‘Of course not!’ Is what he wanted to say but damn his corrupted emotions for letting him open his mouth to say nothing! He closes his mouth again and takes a deep breath in to let it out softly.

“Keith, are you ok?” she asks trying not to sound concerned and her grin fading but there was a hint of worry in her voice regardless, especially since he had told her about not being fond of the place not too long ago. Keith manages to pull himself out of the mysterious spell-like trance when hearing Pidge’s worried voice, now looking her in the eyes and is now grinning as he finally feels his feet again. He walks up to her to and nudges her arm with his elbow as he says,

“Someone’s a little impatient to see this ‘giant fish’.”

“I’m not as excited as you are, you practically froze up just now!” She says with a chuckle as she brings her hand up to hit him on the arm.

“I AM curious to see how he looks though, I’ve only seen him in magazines and on TV. Supposedly he’s as long as your average dolphin, which ranges from 6 to 13 feet but it says here he’s approximately 7 and a half feet...or so the pamphlets says, before you ask me how I know,” she says slightly wiggling the unfolded paper in her hands with her eyes still skimming through it. Keith looks down at his own pamphlet to confirm what she had told him and lets out a soft hum, as in to sound interested but he obviously wasn’t.

Keith didn’t really care much about the facts or anything about the creature to begin with but he would most definitely need as much information as he could get to complete his mother’s incomplete work. He obviously couldn’t work on it now but he could build up on the knowledge and research for when the time came. He didn’t want to think too much into it at the moment though so he lifts his eyes away from the paper to look at Pidge but he had begun to slow down in steps until he had come to yet another stop once they had walked inside completely, thankfully not being the only one since Pidge had stopped right next to him for the same reason.

The view they were suddenly surrounded in, it was…breathtakingly beautiful.

Blue ocean-like waters had surrounded them completely, as if not only them but every single person walking and standing around were the figurines inside of the snow globe-like tank. If outside looked like a snow globe to Keith, then where they stood looked like they were in a snow globe INSIDE of a snow globe!

Instead of the fake snow or silver confetti floating around them, hundreds of different species, colors and sizes of fish casually swam around them in the bright blue water that seemed as if it was sparkling thanks to the sun coming through the glass from outside. It almost seemed like they were under the ocean water themselves, attempting to look up from underneath but it was clearly impossible with the inner and outer layers of the tank. The bottom of the tank, which was literally the same level as the floor Keith and everyone else walked on was covered with sand and different kinds of coral reefs to decorate and give the feel of being under the ocean for both visitors and fish.

Keith couldn’t believe he had barely any memories of this place, for any kid stepping in here of any age would never forget such a place, such an experience.

Keith was rendered speechless.

“Woah…this place is really something,” Pidge finally says to break them from their trance. Despite Keith being able to follow right behind Pidge as she made her way to the glass closest to them, he couldn’t keep his eyes form wandering around the vast and grand view. 

There was something about the place that seemed so familiar to Keith. It must’ve been the fact that he had most definitely been here before, that was without a doubt but...something felt off. 

Something was missing and he knew it had to do with his jogged up memory.

“Earth to Keith, are you present cadet?”

Keith blinks himself out of his thoughts before his head snaps from the other side of the tank to Pidge, who had clearly been talking to him but he hadn’t even realized they reached the glass or even came to a stop.

“What?” he asks a bit confused.

“I asked if you think they put these fishes for the Merman to eat. Or would that be considered too vulgar for the visitors to see? Well, more like the children.”

“Oh, Um…maybe? Does the pamphlet say anything about that,” he somewhat mumbles as he looks down to the pamphlet. 

Before he could read far into it though, he hears a combination of both children and adults letting out soft yet audible sounds of amusement and excitement that had him and Pidge turn both their heads and bodies in the direction of the sounds. There was a small crowd slowly forming in front of the glass literally across from where they stood on the other side of the room. It was pretty obvious what the excitement was all about even before they were able to see the slightly larger figure behind the tank, swimming in front of the crowd.

Keith was sure he felt his heart stop for a second before picking up in pace when finally catching a perfect glimpse of what was most definitely the Merman but he couldn’t understand why he was so nervous. Surely these odd emotions was something you felt when meeting up with maybe a girlfriend or boyfriend after a very long time, right? It was those very cheesy emotions that the main characters in the movies or books that Keith watched and read about that were supposed to be a good feeling…right?

Keith felt anything BUT good.

He was so damn nervous and confused to the point that he was sure Pidge would be able to hear his rapid heart beating, which made him even more nervous but he was making sure he didn’t show any of these weird symptoms for anyone to see. Even though he had no idea why he was panicking, he seemed to be hiding it pretty well, especially when Pidge turns to look at him and asks,

“Wanna walk on over or should we wait for him to come over here?”

Keith crosses his arms over his chest in an attempt to calm himself without trying to hint to Pidge his current situation, looking over at the crowd before saying,

“You can go if you want. I’ll just wait here to see if he passes…”

“You sure? This is a once in a life time experience y’know, we gotta enjoy this,” she says as she begins to walk away from Keith, walking backwards to confirm Keith’s decision.

“Positive. I actually really need to use the bathroom so I’ll catch up to you.”

And with that Pidge gives him a small nod of the head before turning around and making her way to the small crowd. Once Keith saw Pidge blend in with the crowd he turns and makes his way to where they walked in from a little too quickly, having seen a restroom before walking in the exhibit. When he reached the door to the restroom he opens the door and thanks everything holy for it being temporarily empty before walking in and making his way to the furthest stall. The bathroom was pretty large for it to be empty with around 8 to 10 stalls and 6 to 7 urinals, the walls painted different shades of blue to match the aquarium colors but he wasn’t really paying attention with his panicked state and went straight to the last stall at the very end. He locks himself in it before turning to lean himself against the door to finally let out the uneven breaths he had difficulties with trying to control.

“What the hell is wrong with me…?” he manages to breathe out as his eyes look around in a panicked state. Was he having a panic attack? No, he’s had those at least 2 or 3 times back in junior high school so he knew what that was. 

The symptoms were extremely similar, that’s for sure.

The strangest part of it all was that Keith’s reaction worsened once his eyes landed on the Merman…

Why? Was it his doing? Was Keith not the only one who felt this way because he sure as hell hoped so…but if the Merman was the cause of his current mix of emotions, should he not go back in? Should he just leave? Tell Pidge that his boss from work called him in and needed him or whatever but he needed out, he needed to leave, he needed to-

“So I heard my sister talking to her friend, right?”

The door to the bathroom opens and interrupts his thoughts along with a person’s voice, bringing Keith back to reality and his breath having suddenly evened out. His heartbeat thankfully had seemed to calm down too, Keith giving himself a couple of seconds more to breath a bit before leaning off the door and actually using the bathroom since he was already there. Once he was done he walks out the stall and goes to wash his hands, ignoring the two males who had been talking about nonsense and taking an abnormally long piss before he walks out.

He was calm now. 

He had no idea what had gotten into him but the sudden clash of emotions he felt were gone. They vanished within seconds before Keith could even decipher what the hell was going on, which was really worrying for him so he decided that he was going to grab Pidge and go. Surely she had gotten to see the Merman already and Keith wasn’t about to find out if the source of his…whatever it was, was because of him.

As he walked back into the exhibit he looks around to see if he could spot Pidge so he could simply walk up to her and walk right out the exit. He had almost forgotten how packed the place was though so to spot a rather short Pidge from a distance and in a crowd was nearly impossible. With a soft sigh he walks up to the same spot where they had walked up to when they first walked in and pulls out his phone to send a text to her.

{Where are you? I don’t see you.}

As he waits for her reply he continues to let his eyes roam around for her before turning to look at the glass. A small family of fish swam by slowly, paying no mind to his presence and Keith simply watched them, falling into a slight daze. He had no energy whatsoever at this point, he could really use a nap and watching the fish swim by wasn’t helping him stay awake in the slightest bit whatso-

[This is ridiculous]

Keith turns his head to his left, when seeing no one near him he turns his head to the right for the same results. He was sure he heard someone talking to him or at least next to him but no one was even near him.

Great, this is exactly what he needs to top off his sleep deprivation: Hallucinations.

He lets out a soft sigh before turning his attention back to the tank where he was met with a fish sucking on the glass right in front of him, Keith slightly flinching back a bit with a small frown. He then watches the fish, known as a Catfish according the panel in front of him swim away while still sucking on the glass and Keith lets out yet another tired sigh.

[This really IS ridiculous…why am I even here?] Keith thought to himself as he folds his arms over his chest. 

[I feel you buddy. I tell myself that every day…but you’ll get used to it eventually.]

Keith’s eyes widen as the same voice spoke again and has him turning his head to see where it was coming from. Once again he sees no one even close enough to him to be able to strike a conversation with him and this has Keith feeling just a tad bit freaked out by this. The place was crowded but not crowded enough for Keith to be able to hear and understand any conversations floating about and this starts to worry him.

[Ok, this isn’t something I should be getting used to and I need to get out of here] Keith says to himself before starting to walk away from the tank but he was only able to take 3 steps before he freezes up once again.

[Good luck with that. I’ve tried plenty of times but these humans have some pretty tight security here…] the voice had said with a small chuckle.

No, Keith was not going insane, he was not hallucinating nor was he hearing things or making voices up in his head. He was not talking to himself out of sleep deprivation, he was not doing this right now. He WAS just about ready to zoom his way right out the big metal doors that both screamed and obviously spelt Exit in big red letters but what he hears next has him looking around once again for the damn voice.

[Well, you ARE a lot smaller than me so maybe it’s possible. A fish your size can get through any hole and escape within a heartbeat, unlike me of course…a Merman my size wouldn’t be able to get as far as from here to that coral reef.]

Keith ceases to look around for the source, already knowing where it was coming from but wasn’t sure if he wanted to confirm it.

There was no need to confirm anyways because Keith knew it was just his tired mind playing games on him…or so he desperately wanted to convince himself but his eyes start to slowly look around the insides of the tanks, looking for the said source.

Looking for the Merman.

[You seem like you know what it’s like to be out of this glass. To be out in the ocean…is it as beautiful as the others says it is?]

Keith almost started to panic when he couldn’t find him but he had forgot to check the very spot he was just at, which was literally right behind him and it wasn’t much to his surprise that when he turns he sees him right he Keith had been standing.

He stood standing where he was, watching the Merman play with the said pink coral reef he had mentioned not too long ago with a small smile even Keith could see from the small distance away from the glass. Keith could feel himself instantly mesmerized by…everything, really. He looked as long as Pidge mentioned from the pamphlet but that wasn’t what had Keith staring at the mythical creature before him in awe.

Despite the crazy long tail, the blue spots of scales on his body here and there and the small gills around his neck, the Merman…was much more captivating than the whole itself. Keith found it nearly impossible to look away and had no idea he had been walking up to the glass where the Merman stood afloat, the little coral reef between his webbed fingers.

[Is the ocean water really as beautiful as mom described it to be?]

Keith had felt as if he was now intruding inside of the Merman’s thoughts but the Merman seemed to have no idea he was intruding inside of Keith’s. 

Not yet at least.

He was pretty positive that the Merman had no idea he was talking with Keith…telepathically? However it must’ve been, Keith could tell that the Merman thought he was talking with a fellow fish and Keith wasn’t sure if he should just walk away or…try to talk with him. To tell him he wasn’t talking to some fish but to Keith himself. His curiosity had gotten the better of Keith as he simply stood in front of the glass and listened to the Merman talk…or think.

[Is it really a place where I could be…free? With no humans to do tests on me or interrogate me? Is it the same place mom talked about with her warm smile and that happiness in her eyes?]

Keith wasn’t sure what gave him the bright idea to respond when he clearly shouldn’t have since he wasn’t the fish the Merman thought he was talking to.

But something in Keith wanted to reassure this breathtaking being that what he was saying was true, even if it was a lie.

[Yeah. It is.]

When he saw the Merman’s expression fall from a smile to a saddened expression, it had Keith’s stomach slightly knot up and his chest tighten just a tad bit. It was an expression that no one was looking at in that very moment, an expression that Keith had only been looking at in that very moment and an expression Keith could he wore plenty of times because it reminded him of someone who wore it many times before.

Himself.

It was an expression he wasn't expecting to see after confirming his words, which Keith found all the more strange along with his words.

[It doesn’t matter anyways, I won’t ever be leaving this god awful place. I’ll just be a clownfish to the human’s for the rest of my life, an entertainer, a test subject, a slave for these damn humans who do nothing but kill-]

Keith could feel himself flinch, it was pretty visible too, when the Merman turns his head to look out the glass and Keith could clearly see the Merman flinch himself when their eyes lock into each other’s. Keith felt as if the air had been knocked right out of him as he looked into his bright blue irises, they were the same color as the very water he swam in. Keith was mesmerized by the color that he couldn’t get himself to look away or even move, almost as if he had been hypnotized. He couldn’t help but wonder if anyone else felt this way when looking into his eyes or if it was the Merman doing this, if he had any powers of course.

The saddened expression the Merman wore had instantly turned into a small frown, Keith a bit confused to why until he heard him say,

[What are YOU looking at?]

Keith’s eyes slightly widen at the change of his voice, or well…his inner voice as he heard a small bite to his tone. He watches as the Merman swims up to the glass and places his hands on it, spreading his fingers to reveal small webs in between which Keith didn’t find to be a pretty sight but he didn’t pay much mind to it. What he DID pay mind to was the fact that if the Merman hadn’t leveled himself to Keith’s height, he would’ve been hovering way above Keith’s sight to the point where the Merman would have to look down at him. His tail was seriously long and something about that kind of upset Keith but he didn’t let that get to him. He couldn’t because the Merman’s next words had Keith mirroring the frown he wore very quickly.

[And what’s with that hair style, it looks really weird. It’s a bit too long for a guy to be wearing really-]

“What the hell, you got a problem with my hair?” 

Both of their expressions had went to shock when Keith had spoken out loud. He turns his head in hopes no one had heard him and luckily for him, there was only a kid around the age of 6 or 7 who wasn’t close but wasn’t far enough to not hear him as she looked at him with widened eyes. He clears his throat and opens his mouth to offer an apology or something, not knowing what to say to the kid and with luck being on his side again she walks away without a word. Keith honestly wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or bad but seeing how he wasn’t ever going to see her again he turns his attention back to the Merman, whose expression hadn’t changed in the last couple of expressions. 

Keith wasn’t sure how to feel about being the one stared at now but at least the Merman knew he wasn’t talking to god who knows who really.

[You…] the Merman said in a soft yet cautious tone.

[You can hear me?]

Keith wasn’t sure if he should nod or confirm verbally but he didn’t want anyone passing by to think he was crazy trying to talk with the guy, or fish, or whatever so he looks into those captivating blue eyes once again and responds,

[Yeah…I can hear you.]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright!
> 
> For those of you who watched Season 3 of Voltron, how did you like it?  
> I know its been out for approximately 5 days already but I'm sure there are people out there who haven't watched it yet. I WOULD warn to not spoil anything for those who haven't watched it but the internet is already filled with them, it's just how the internet sadly works (~_~)  
> But the new season was pretty good, I stood up all the way until 3 in the morning to watch it and I literally cried, spazzed and screamed in silence. And now we wait for october... :'D
> 
> I shall report next week with a brand new chapter so until then, bye bye~!


	4. Trouble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here it is!
> 
> Chapter 4!
> 
> Yaay!! :'D
> 
> I was finding it a bit hard to stop writing but I shall warn you: the ending is a tad bit sad. Nothing dramatic or crazy but I kind of though it was a bit sad, me being the one who wrote it. I actually felt a bit emotional writing it out! (TT^TT)
> 
> Do excuse any errors, I was in a hurry to put this up but I hope you like it~! <3

It was nearing 5 pm, an hour before closing time for Altea Aquarium. Allura had barely made it out of her last biology class of the day and hoped she could make it to the aquarium before closing time as she hopped into her car in a rush. Whenever she had enough free time she would always pay a visit to the aquarium before starting her internship hours there, her free time usually ranging from once to twice a week. Even though she doesn’t like taking any kinds of breaks or vacations when she is in the middle of her semesters, the aquarium has always been an exception for her.

She wanted nothing more than to see the creation her grandfather built prosper and bloom into something grand, wanting nothing more than for the family business to grow into something that people can enjoy with their own loved ones.

Just as she enjoyed it with her own father when she was younger.

She wanted to make her father proud by taking over the aquarium one day, Allura hopping that that day would come soon but in order for her to do that, she had to study. She had to earn her degrees and expand her knowledge before even thinking about wanting to run the place in her fathers’ stead. She knew she wouldn’t be able to even step foot in the very office her father once did when running the place, not with her lack of necessary power she needed to claim it.

She didn’t need all of the power and knowledge she could possess just to run the place itself though, there was a much bigger force before her that claimed her rightful spot in her father’s chair. A force that would require Allura to obtain everything she could, she needed more than just her degree in zoology or marine biology or business. What exactly, she was still learning and figuring that out on the way of her studying as the years pass by but the force before her was no other than her own family member. A family member she felt deep inside she couldn’t trust with her father’s business despite how close he was with her father before he had passed away from a terrible illness.

Theodore Zarkon Altea, her father’s brother and her uncle.

Ever since her father had passed away 14 years ago, Zarkon had taken over the aquarium in her stead. At first she hadn’t mind, thinking that after she finished her studies they could run the place together, uncle and niece, like the family they are.

Like the family they were.

She had even opened up the idea to him a couple of times and he accepted it with a warm smile but ever since that day, things changed. His attitude towards her went from smiles and laughter to glances and isolation. She couldn’t understand why, it left her lost and confused because not only did she loose her father but she had lost her uncle too, the only family she had left.

She didn’t understand.

At least not until about a year ago.

He had went to file a case to gain full custody of the aquarium so by the time Allura would finish her studies, she wouldn’t be able to fight for it. His sudden greed to keep the company for himself left her in shock and a bit heartbroken and despite her disadvantage of being unprepared, she wasn’t planning on leaving the company in his hands. There must’ve been a reason he wanted the company all for himself and ever since his change of attitude, she feared it wasn’t for any good reasons. She felt something was off and she was planning to do whatever she could to save her father’s company from anything harmful.

Luckily for her, the case was still open till this very day and she only had a little more than a year to graduate. If luck continued to be on her side until then, she would be able to grab custody of the aquarium and would make her father proud of her.

Despite the heavy obstacles before her, she was going to get back what was rightfully hers.

As she pulls up to an empty spot in the parking lot next to the aquarium, she digs inside her compartment on the passenger side next to her to pull out her staff tag and grabs her hand purse before stepping out the car to lock it. She was surprised her uncle even granted her the staff tag when she had asked for it about 6 months ago, telling him she simply wanted to walk in and out to examine the place to further help in her studies. She even went as far as to ask him to put her on an internship so she could at least work inside the aquarium. At first he had declined, telling her he didn’t need her around the aquarium if he was fighting her for custody of the place but a month after declining it he had strangely changed his mind and gave it to her.

_“I’ll let you in on the internship. Once you’re finished with it, you won’t be allowed to step foot in here anyways when I acquire full custody.”_

Those were his very words to her and oh how she wanted nothing more than to deny them, to fight back and tell him how wrong he was and that she was going to do everything she could to get her father’s aquarium back-

But she didn’t. And she couldn’t.

It was thanks to the support she had from her father’s closest friend, who Zarkon surprisingly let him continue work inside the aquarium, that had Allura keeping faith and hope that everything was going to work out the way she wanted it to.

As she walked into the aquarium and made her way through it, she couldn’t help but let a small smile form on her lips as she watched the people around her. She could see the happiness radiating from them, their smiles clear and bright and the laughter of the children sending her a soft wave of happiness herself. She also couldn’t help but feel a bit nostalgia but she tried to no put much thought into it. Even though her memories with her father was precious memories, she had her days where remembering them would put her in a pretty down mood so she tried not to think about it. At least when she wasn’t alone.

“Allura!” a voice calls out to her. She turns her head away from the glass filled with Clownfish to meet eyes with that very said friend of her fathers, also her very own friend now.

“Coran, it’s so good to see you,” she says with a smile as she walks up to him and straight into his open arms for a hug.

“You always say that as if we haven’t seen each other in a long time. We saw each other 3 days ago! Or was it 4, I can’t remember,” he says after they pull away from the hug and looks up in thought, pulling on his orange mustache to give it a twirl in his finger.

“I’m pretty sure it was 3,” she says with a soft chuckle.

“But with the amount of classes and work that keeps piling up and throwing itself at me, it almost feels like I see you once a month.”

He nods his head agreeingly as he lets go of his mustache.

“I suppose with how you’re working so hard and so diligently it may seem that way. Speaking of classes, how was it?”

And with that, they both began to walk slowly through the tunnels of the aquarium as she told him all about what she had learned and her new discoveries. She had a little more time before starting her internship work hours and what better way than to spend it walking around the aquarium with Coran, who she found to be the only family she had despite not being blood related at all?

Whenever she had the chance, she would always tell Coran how grateful she was to have him in her life and by her side. She had always thought that Coran would think she was crazy or delusional if she told him about how she felt about Zarkon taking over the aquarium but after telling him, she as actually a bit surprised he acted the complete opposite. He had believed her and told her he felt the same way, ever since then he had been doing everything he could to try and find out whatever he could within the aquarium in his time working there. Sadly he couldn’t find much though, his position in the aquarium limiting him to certain places within the aquarium that he did have access to before but with Zarkon having taken over he wasn’t allowed very far anymore. If her ever did find a anything slightly off or weird going on though, he would make sure to inform Allura on all the details as fast as he could to help her with the case Zarkon had thrown at her.

Coran too wanted Allura to take command of the aquarium and he had his own reasons for this.

“It must’ve been another productive day for you, seeing how crowded it is even before closing time,” she says looking around at the people they passed by as they entered the Merman’s Exhibit. No matter how many times she enters the exhibit she is always struck with fascination to how well it was put together, a smile never ceasing to form on her lips.

“Oh yes, it was a lot more crowded than this since opening time. Doing tours with a crowd can be quite difficult but it’s worth it when you get to see the little ones expressions. Especially when they reach this very part of the tour, the light in their eyes always reminds me of when your father used to bring you here when you were a child.”

They stop once they reach the glass of the tank, Allura smiling softly at the memories coming to her head.

“I remember,” she whispers as she softly places her hand on the glass, watching some fish swim by. The both of them stand in silence as they watch the various fish going back and forth, either as a family or alone, moving by slowly until they reach the glass and quickly swim away from being too close to the glass.

“Your father would be proud of you if he saw the wonderful young lady you have become,” He finally says in a soft tone but audible enough for her to hear over the chattering of the crowd. She doesn’t say anything but turns her attention back to Coran and gives him a small appreciative smile.

She wanted to agree with him but she still felt so far from her true goal.

She still had a very long way to go.

“I’m going to head over to the lab, even though I’ll be an hour early. I heard Sendak was returning from his vacation today and I wanted to ask him some questions before we started on anything,” she says before they began to make their way back out the Exhibit, continuing to talk before they went their separate ways.

She had a very long way to go with all of this indeed but that wasn’t scaring her one bit.

 

 

                                   ~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~

 

 

Lance moves his hands away from the glass as if he’d just touch something hot, unable to hide the slight shock in his eyes as he now entered a stare down with this random human who claimed he could hear him.

That wasn’t possible, right?

There was no way a random human could be able to hear him and Lance could feel a very faint but noticeable panic rising inside of him.

[There’s no way you can….are you one of those scientist people? I don’t see you wearing one of those white jackets, or whatever those things are] he says with a frown and raised brow.

[You mean a lab coat…] the human before him says mirroring his expression before continuing,

[But no, I’m…not a scientist. Why do I have to be a scientist to be able to hear you? Why am I even able to hear you, are you doing this? Can anyone else hear you right now-]

[Would you be quiet human, you’re asking too many questions!] He interrupts him by hissing back, frown deepening a bit. He could clearly see him flinch a bit from his change of tone but Lance could care less about that. He had a much more bigger problem to worry about and that problem was this very human guy standing before him.

Lance wasn’t allowed to communicate with the humans other than the scientists, he was being watched and they would know if he was communicating with anyone outside the glass. He could get into plenty of trouble, trouble he wanted to avoid for both his and Hunk’s sake but that wasn’t the only problem that currently shocked him.

The glass he was surrounded in was built to block out any sound waves of communication he could possibly send to anyone outside the glass, it was tested numerous times until it was successful. How could he be communicating with this human, whose hair was seriously strange and too long for him?

[Look, I just want to know why of all people in this place, you’re having a conversation with me? Unless I’m dreaming about talking to a giant fish right now-]

[Ok, first of all, that was hella rude of you. I’m a merman, not a fish! THOSE are fish-] he says pointing to a small family of angelfish that had just swam by from behind him without having to even look.

[And second of all, forget that you ever heard anything. It’ll be for both of our safety...this conversation ends here.]

Lance finally breaks eye contact with the dark haired human and begins to swim away, glancing around to make sure no one saw him sitting in one spot for too long. That was a rule they had gave him to follow and if he broke it, they would assume he was attempting to communicate with someone: don’t stop swimming or sit in one spot for too long.

There was a reason for them giving Lance that rule. He had attempted many times to communicate with the humans to seek help in escaping the aquarium and those numerous attempts ended in both failure and punishment.

The worst part of it all wasn’t that he had failed or got punished for what he did but the success he had gained from getting someone’s attention to only have them shrug it off as them “imagining things” or “going crazy”. He’s even tried gaining the attention of kids since the only way anyone can hear him is if they strongly believed in the existence of mermaids and what better target than kids?

But when with their parents, they had only seen it as _“their children using their imaginations”_.

He had been at a complete lost.

And that was one out of the many reasons why he hated humans.

[Wait, what do you mean for our safety? hold on!]

Lance turns his attention to the glass to see the guy walking alongside him, trying to look casual so no one thought he looked weird following him around the tank but he quickly turns his head away. He tried to cut off the connection between them and when he didn’t hear his voice for a good couple of minutes he was sure it was safe for him to turn his attention back to the glass. Lance was sure he was gone after giving him the cold shoulder so he take in a deep breath and lets it out slowly before turning to look back out the glass-

[I said wait dammit, I’m not done talking to you!]

Lance’s eyes widen from both shock and surprise from the guy standing close to the glass once again and from his annoyed tone booming through his head. He flinches back a bit before quickly turning to swim behind a pretty big pink coral-like tree, peeking through the little gaps between the corals branches.

Yeah, Lance has been yelled at a couple of times before, specifically by the scientist and in a much harsher manner that if he could’ve cried tears under water he most likely would’ve had. He could never get used to getting yelled at by the scientists since the majority of them had deeper voices, much more deeper than this random human standing on the other side of the glass but there was a huge difference. The difference between getting yelled at verbally and telepathically was huge: verbally may have been stronger in tone and pretty damn frightening in Lance’s opinion but telepathically was a lot more louder and sensitive for him. He has never been yelled at by the scientists telepathically so for this stranger to surprise him with such a loud tone was just as frightening.

He watched the human man from behind the coral reef with wide eyes. He seemed to be a bit surprised himself from Lance’s reaction since he hadn’t said anything but he was watching him, the same way Lance was watching him.

[L-Look, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to ask you some questions.]

Lance doesn’t respond because he’s honestly a bit frightened by this strange man. He was never fond of humans and having this stranger yelling at him for attention was not something he wanted to cooperate with.

He had just about enough with having to answer questions anyways, it’s something he had to do almost on a daily basis.

[Ok, if you don’t want to talk then that’s fine but can you at least answer one question?]

Lance pokes half of his face out from behind the branches, up until his eyes as he blinks a couple of times before he locks eyes with him. He looked a bit serious now and something about his look had him feeling a bit nervous.

Was it nerves? It had to be, he could feel his heartbeat beating a little too quickly for his own liking so what else could it be if not his nerves? And if he wasn’t nervous then, he sure as hell was now when he realizes a small crowd coming around the glass where the guy was standing. They must’ve thought Lance was playing around with the other fishes or something for him to be hiding behind the coral reef but that was most certainly not the case.

The guy himself seemed to be a bit on the fidgety side when realizing the other humans forming around him but he brings is attention back to Lance with the same seriousness in his eyes.

[Did you know a human by the name of Kimberly Kogane?]

Lance’s face had lit up when hearing the name because yes! He did know who that was, he knew her pretty well but before he could respond, he turns his attention to the loud speakers that had went off to announce the closing of the aquarium for the day.

That was also Lance’s que to leave.

He looks back to the guy, whose eyes had slightly widened at the loud speakers before looking back to Lance.

[Wait, I need to know! Did you know a Kimberly Kogane?]

Lance wasn’t sure what to do, the name having sparked his own questions for the stranger: How did he know her? Was he related to her in some way? Could he…

Could he possibly know anything about his mother?

His eyes had widened at the realization that this guy could hold important information but before he could respond he was cut off once again by a familiar voice calling out to him. The voice of a specific scientist who Lance kind of despised and had called him to come around to the back where they would bring him back to the lab, which was literally right next door but no normal human knew that.

And lucky for Lance it was that time of the week where he wouldn’t be back at the aquarium for the next week, it was lab tests week.

Lances eyes doesn’t leave the strangers on the other side of the glass, wanting nothing more than to respond to him but he feared his current open connection with the scientist would link to the black haired mans and he would hear him.

But Lance had to do something, he had to say something or else he feared he’d lose something important that could possibly link to his mother.

He had to wing it.

[Next Week] was all he could think of saying before turning to quickly swim away while waving goodbye to the people leaving, the guys’ voice that called out for him slowly lessening in sound the further he got. Once he went through a passage wide enough for him to go through, exiting out the other side and bringing himself above the surface of the water, he couldn’t hear him anymore.

 

                                                     ~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~

 

[Wait, come back! Hey!] Keith calls out to the Merman but he could only watch as he swam above where the entrance of the exhibit was to only disappear behind it within the glass, not turning back around or responding to him.

Keith curses under his breath as he lowers his hands from the glass, not even remembering when he had brought them up to begin with but that wasn’t important right now. What WAS important was that this Merman knew his mother, which went against the words his uncle told him, who had worked as a Marine Biologist and still does.

The day news broke out about the Mermaid having a child 3 years after her passing, both Shiro and Keith asked their uncle, Thace Kogane, if he knew if their mother knew about it. He had told him she didn’t and they believed him, the two having going through her work and seeing nothing about the mermaid having baring a child or even being pregnant.

But something deep inside Keith told him that was all a lie.

His mother must’ve known, she was always in the aquarium with the mermaid herself, what other reason would she have to go to the aquarium if not for the mythical creature? His mothers’ personal research and work didn’t add up to any of this, there was something definitely wrong, or at least Keith had always been convinced.

The look in the Merman’s eyes, the small glint of the mention of Keith’s mothers name had gave him enough of an answer. He KNEW his mother, which meant his mother must’ve known about him way before the media had even found out.

And the fact that the scientist lied when they told the media about the Mermaids being unable to communicate with humans at all, their sound waves similar to dolphins or whatever crap it was that they had spewed on the TV and radios was also a huge lie. They were simply preventing him from doing so against his own will somehow.

Maybe with a threat?

Keith could only guess an imagine what could possibly going on behind the scenes.

What unsettled Keith the most

All of this was starting to make Keith’s head slightly pound with so many emotions as he stood staring at where the Merman had disappeared: frustration, confusion, doubt, anxiousness-

“Looks like we came too late.”

Keith turns around to the familiar voice of his brother behind him. He’s met with Shiro, Matt and Pidge approaching him with small smiles, excluding Pidge who had a small grin.

“You looked like you were having fun with Lance there~”

“Lance?” Keith murmurs, still trying to break himself free from his currently wild thoughts which proved to be just a tad bit difficult.

“The Merman. That’s his name,” Matt says before looking around, eyes slightly wide behind his round glasses. Shiro seemed to be a little more interested in Matt’s expression as he watched him glance around with a warm smile. Keith could only imagine Shiro having been watching Matt the whole way to the exhibit instead of the fish around them.

“I told you his name was Lance, don’t you remember?” Pidge says with a raised brow as she folds her arms over her chest. Keith nods slowly as he brings his hand up to brush it through his hair as he mumbles,

“Uh, yeah, I remember…”

“You alright Keith?” Shiro asks after finally looking away from Matt, having been able to notice something off in Keith’s tone. Keith clears his throat as he pushes his hands into his pockets and manages to temporarily force his muddled thoughts to the back of his head to give his brother a small reassuring smile.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m…just a bit tired. The walk all the way from the entrance to the exhibit is a little too long, I haven’t done this much walking in a while.”

“Ugh, tell me about it! Why did they make the tunnels so unnecessarily long to walk through?” Pidge whines as she turns to her brother, knowing he would have an answer for her question because he would obviously know anything and everything to this topic.

“Well-“ He had begun as he turned his head to the three, ready to get into the longest explanation about the construction of the place before he was interrupted with a voice right behind him. All of their attention was turned to an older man, maybe around his early or late 40’s, with orange hair and an orange mustache to go with it as he spoke with a small smile.

“This building was created and built by the owner, Theodore Zarkon Altea’s great grandparents 50 years ago. Their purpose for building such a grand aquarium was so they could share all of the amazing marine life they had discovered with the world from their journeys as Marine Biologists.”

“So does that mean every living fish and mammal are all contained here? Is there any open viewings outside or something?” Pidge asked with both of her eyebrows raised, her interest in the topic slightly raised. Keith wasn’t going to lie, he was just as interested and had a lot more questions he could ask about the place but he couldn’t ask them with Shiro and the others were here with him.

This was also a good opportunity for him to tease Pidge for her interest in the topic so he sends her a small grin and says,

“Be careful Katie, I can see the Matt oozing out of you.”

She quickly turns her head to glare at him and nearly growls at him,

“Ok first, don’t make me curse you out in front of an elder. Second, that is by far the worst insult you have thrown at me and you should be very lucky I’m not looking for a way to drown you in the water we’re currently sounded by. And third, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me by my name in public?”

“Hey, what’s so wrong with being compared to your own twin brother?” Matt says with a small frown, to which Pidge ignores along with his words. Matt glares at her before looking back to the older man, who was most definitely a staff at the aquarium. His blue suit-like attire followed with two purple lines running up the side of his pants and arm sleeves to his formal jacket was the colors of the clothes all of the staff in the aquarium was wearing so he definitely was a staff.

“If the weather isn’t too hot, they do showcase the mammals outside in the back so they can get some sun. As for the smaller fish, they are all contained inside and according to our current records, we have quite a lot of fish stored in here!”

With the twirl of his mustache he looks all three of them in the eyes, a spark going off in his eyes as he says,

“If one of you can guess how many fish is currently held in this very aquarium, I’ll throw in a little prize~!”

Matt raises his hand half way, all of them knowing he would know and definitely answer correctly but before he could open his mouth he lowers his hand back down and turns to them.

“I’ll give you guys the honor of answering since I already know the answer.”

Pidge rolls her eyes and mumbles a low, “Nerd…” under her breath before Shiro decided to give the guessing game a little try.

“I’m going to go with…300.”

“Not even close,” he says letting his mustache go to place both of his hands behind his back.

“400?” Pidge guesses.

“Not quite.”

“500.”

“Higher.”

“600.”

“More than that!”

“800!” Pidge says a little too confidently to only get rejected once again. Her shoulders slump as she folds her arms over her chest, Matt grinning as he watched her and Shiro go back and forth with numbers.

Keith honestly didn’t want to be here playing guessing games right now. He needed to get home and go over everything his mother had left behind, all of the things he was sure he went over a good couple of hundreds of times. Despite not have wanting to touch any of those things until after his major writing contest, the current situation left him without no other choice but to. It was the only way he could get his mother’s last words out to the world, the only way he could put everything to rest and-

“Keith, why don’t you give it a try?”

Keith looks from Shiro, to Matt who was still grinning before looking from Pidge to the elder man. He might as well take a swing at it, maybe if he guessed right they could finally leave, right?

“I don’t know…1,300?” he says unsurely as he shrugs his shoulders.

“Ooh, so close!” he says snapping his fingers.

Matt finally decides to barge in with the confident, smug grin Pidge despised oh so dearly because it was a look he wore either whenever he thought he was right, when he WAS right or he beats her in any particular board game they play. She didn’t quite care at the moment though for the shock of there being more than 1,000 different species of fish in one place was a lot more interesting than arguing with her brother.

“The answer is 1,450,” Matt says , waiting for the praise to hit him from the elder man, Pidge and Keith rolling their eyes but their expressions quickly change to a grin when the orange haired man says,

“That answer…would’ve been correct if you would’ve came in a week ago for me to ask you the same question but they just added a couple of species in. There is currently 1,643 different species in this aquarium at the moment, excluding the mammals of course.”

Pidge, Shiro and Matt’s eyes slightly widen form the fun fact, Matt more surprised about not knowing about it than it being a fun fact for him. Keith, in the other hand, wasn’t as surprised as them since they DID just walk through the place so it made sense there would be an insane amount of fish in here.

“Wait, but aren’t most of the fish here, like, exotic fish? I could’ve sworn I saw some pretty rare ones on the way in here AND swimming around in here too,” Pidge asks shifting her weight from her left leg to her right leg, arms still folded over her chest.

“The exotic fish aren’t kept here for too long. They’re only kept up for a limit time only before they’re sent back to their natural habitat. Most of the exotic fish can’t stay too long out of their natural habitat without dying and we obviously don’t want to be the reason why the number of the species decrease. They don’t bring over the fish that can’t be permanently removed from their habitat because that’s immediate death right there so they don’t touch those but they bring what they can so people can enjoy seeing even the most rarest of fish out in the world!”

They all look to Matt with raised brows from his very thorough explanation, which he doesn’t seem to be embarrassed of in the slightest bit. If anything, they could practically see him puffing his chest out with pride, taking in the glory of his knowledge.

“For you to know all of this, I take it that you work here too?” the orange haired man asks.

Matt nods as he begins to tell him what department he was in and when he would be starting and everything else Keith was sure they didn’t need to be present for.

Keith does everything in his power to not let out a groan because he seriously needed out of this place already! As he glances around, he can also see that the exhibit was almost empty as the remaining people continue to make their ways out, yet they were the only ones standing here.

But then a question comes into mind.

“Is the Merman here in the aquarium every day?” he asks when Matt finally finishes gloating about himself to the elder man and begins to argue with Pidge about it, Shiro watching the two with a small smile.

“Yes and no. Yes, he is here on a daily basis but once a month he gets pulled out by the scientist department for a weekly checkup. I guess you can call it a visit to the doctor, just to make sure he’s as healthy as can be!”

Keith nods his head in understanding. He now understood what the Merman- Well, Lance had meant when he told him next week. He would be back in the aquarium next week, which meant Keith had time to organize his thoughts, his notes, his questions and everything else he needed to talk with him.

“As much as I would love to keep talking with you lovely young ones, the aquarium is about to close down for the day and I don’t think you’d enjoy the night in a place like this,” the elder man says with a smile. They all nod agreeingly before Shiro holds out his hand to him and says while returning the smile,

“It was nice talking with you, um…”

“Ah, yes. It seems like I lost my name plate today when touring with the kids but my name is Coran,” He says grabbing Shiro’s hand to give it a firm shake.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever get take see each other again but I’m Shiro. This is Matt, his little sister Pidge and my little brother Keith,” Shiro says gesturing to each of them when saying their names. They all follow in Shiro’s stead and shake Coran’s hand before saying their goodbyes and starting to make their way towards the exit. Keith thanked everything holy that they didn’t have to walk all the way back to the main entrance just to leave the place because he was sure he wasn’t ready to burn the very last bit of energy with that walk.

“If you ever come again and want to chat or ask me questions, don’t hesitate to look for me! Get home safe!” Coran calls out to them before they walk out.

Luckily for all of them, Matt had picked Shiro up in his own car before they arrived to the aquarium, which was why they were a bit late in their arrival but they didn’t have to walk or spend money on a bus ride home. While Matt drove to Shiro and Keith’s place first to drop them off, Pidge had told Matt and Shiro about the fish they had been compared to by her and Keith, Keith simply smiling to the reactions going around. He as too lost in his thoughts to give much a response and when asked if he was alright for what seemed like the hundredth time in the day, he shrugs them off with a reassuring smile or telling them he was tired.

Matt drops them off and the Holt siblings wave them off before Matt drives down the street. Keith unlocks the door to the house and walks in first with Shiro right behind him, locking the door behind him before watching Keith go straight for the stairs, Shiro knowing his brother all too well for him to know he was going to his room.

And that something was obviously wrong with him.

“Hey, you alright? You seemed a little off today. Did you and Pidge get into a fight or something?”

Keith doesn’t make it past the third step as he turns to look at Shiro. He definitely looked as concerned as his voice sounded but Keith wasn’t sure if he should tell Shiro.

Would Shiro believe him if he told him he had actually talked with the mermaid? Would he think he was crazy? Keith had remembered seeing articles and blogs of people claiming the same thing and ended up having to either see a psychiatrist or ended up getting locked up, their “Delusions” having taken over them to the point where they literally went crazy. They were titled “crazy” because according to scientist, _“Mermaids couldn’t talk to humans despite their human like features”_ , or so they always say. But Keith would never believe that.

When his mother had interviewed the mermaid, she had told everyone it was through the mermaid being able to write back to her but Keith didn’t remember seeing anything that wasn’t in his mother’s hand writing in her work. There wasn’t any proof that she had communicated to her through pen and paper, which meant the scientist lied to everyone.

His mother… had lied to him.

“No, we didn’t…Well, I wouldn’t call it a fight-“he says looking around but when he looked at Shiro and his raised brow, knowing that was a look that meant he was trying to understand what he meant, he folds his arms over his chest and averts his eyes again.

“But we didn’t fight. And why are you asking me if I’m ok every 10 minutes, I’m going to keep telling you the same thing, I’m just really tired so-“

Keith hadn’t realize his tone changed into somewhat of an annoyed tone until he saw his brothers eyes slightly widen. He really wasn’t going for that tone at all, he really was tired and had so much on his mind that he couldn’t voice out to him and as he opens his mouth to apologize, Shiro knew what he was going to say and beat him to it.

“Hey, it’s alright. I just wanted to make sure you were really ok.“

Shiro brings his hand up to rub the back of his neck, Keith having already decipher that gesture as him being tired. It was something he did almost every day and Keith couldn’t blame it. Anyone who knew him knew they couldn’t blame him for being tired, with everything they had been through he ought to be tired and completely stressed out. But no matter how tired Shiro could be, he would always give Keith a smile.

Growing up, Shiro would never show Keith anything else but a smile.

Even after their mother passed away and they were sent to live with their grandparents until Shiro was of age to support both him and Keith, he told him everything was going to be ok and smiled.

Even when Shiro had fallen off of a tree when they were younger from trying to bring down Keith’s favorite hippo plushy down after some bully’s got a hold of it, with Keith crying his eyes out and claiming he was going to die from a broken arm, he told him we would recover very quick and smiled.

Even when Shiro got beat up because of said bullies to defend his little brother from even gaining a scratch from them, 4 against Shiro, he told Keith he was fine and smiled.

Even when Shiro had to juggle the last years of high school while working multiple jobs to support him and Keith when he turned 18 so they had food to eat and so they could keep the house they were raised in after their uncle did them the favor of paying the rent until then, coming home exhausted as can be, he told Keith everything was going to be ok and smiled.

From the sad and horrifying moments of their lives, down to the happy and joyous moments they managed to gain, Shiro never showed Keith anything else but a smile.

But Keith knew it was all a façade.

When Shiro had thought Keith was fast asleep or Keith had left the house to hang out with Pidge, Keith would always catch him in the act. He would watch his brother fold in on himself and cry. Whether it be in the darkest of his room or in the living room when Shiro thought Keith wasn’t home, he would sit himself down and cry. All the way from since they lost their mother, up until they moved back into the house he simply watched his brother take all the burden on his shoulders and cry.

Keith had once watched Shiro cry for literally half a day, having told Shiro he was going to the Holt’s house to hang out with Pidge. Keith had nearly forgotten his phone and had turned back inside the house to retrieve it to only find his brother sitting up on the couch and crying into a pillow on his lap. If his heart could’ve broken any more than what it was, it would’ve done so when seeing his brother in such a weak state. He had texted Pidge and told her he wouldn’t be going over and he crawled behind the couch to sit himself out of Shiro’s sight and listened to his muffled cries. He could only take so much though as he had finally got up from behind the couch and sat himself next to his brother, embracing him into a hug and the two had ended up crying together.

Keith would be lying if he said those times he had witnessed his brother crying didn’t scar him, for anyone who saw him now wouldn’t think the guy shed a tear in his life growing up. They wouldn’t see him as the type of guy, who as a kid wouldn’t cry if he had fallen and scraped his knee.

But Keith could quickly tell them how wrong they would be if they thought that.

And because his brother had been through so much on both of their behalf, on Keith’s behalf, he felt as if he couldn’t tell his brother about what had happened. It wasn’t because he didn’t trust him, their trust in each other was pretty grand and unbreakable if you were to ask Keith. He just didn’t want to add more luggage on him if Shiro didn’t believe him and thought he was going nuts.

Having Shiro doubt him also scared Keith because what if what had happened to him was really a delusion from having not getting enough sleep?

What if Keith had made that all up?

What if it was his mind playing games on him from being sleep deprived?

What if this Merman was playing games with his head?

Whatever it was, Keith knew he had to deal with it on his own and the only way he was going to find out if what had happened to him was real was by him making a second trip to the aquarium.

“I just want you to remember that if there’s anything bothering you, you can always come talk to me about it. I’ll always be here for you no matter what so…don’t close up on me, ok?” Shiro says with yet another one of his warm smiles. A smile that he wasn’t sure if he should embrace himself in or hate it for having Shiro conceal so much from him.

“Yeah, I know,” Keith says returning the smile. He had wanted to retaliate those words back to Shiro but he knew his brother would go along with it and agree…and then hide off whenever he felt it necessary to.

“So, what do you want to eat? You want me to cook something up or-“

“Take out,” Keith both intervenes and answers his unfinished question, already turning to make his way up the stairs.

“I hope you aren’t saying that so I don’t have to cook. I can make us something simple-“

“I want take out because I want take out,” Keith calls out over his shoulder with a lie, finally reaching the top of the stairs.

“Ok but DO you want?” Shiro calls out a little louder now, waiting for Keith’s response.

“Chinese! The usual!” he calls out a couple of seconds later before walking into his room.

He goes to grab some clothes so he could take a shower before walking back out the room to make his way to the bathroom. After taking a pretty long shower to let the hot water really sink in and hoping to clear his mind like always, which it barely didn’t, he goes to his room to sit himself at his computer desk and powers on his laptop. He does a little bit of writing for his story because he was still determined to finish it no matter what other plans he had before he was called down by Shiro to eat.

They both eat in the kitchen and exchange small talk as usual about their day before they part their separate ways when their done. Keith goes back into his room and onto his laptop as he waits for Shiro to come out the shower and stop by his room to tell him not to stay up too late before going into his own room to sleep. When Keith felt Shiro was asleep enough, he gets up to close his door and locks it as quietly as he could.

With the two of them living alone in a home that was a little too big for two people, almost everything echoed within the house.

So with that, he walks up to his closet to open it and kneels down to pull up a rather big piece of wood from the floor that no one would even know was movable. It was a spot he used to hide his candy from both his mother and Shiro when he was younger but now he had been using it to hide everything that belonged to his mother. His mother’s works and research, her laptop which Keith was the only one who remembered the password to and some old photos of her.

Keith had hid them there for a reason though. It was one of the reasons why he and Shiro weren’t on good talking terms with their uncle but he didn’t have time to dwell on that. He had too much research to do and go over and as he sat on his king sized bed that he found way too big for just him to be sleeping on, he had realized something. Something he hoped would lead to a better future and fate for him.

He felt as if he was following his mother’s footsteps.


	5. Conflicted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo I skipped a week due to babysitting my 1 year old niece and 2 year old nephew (who are both turning 2 and 3 in the next 2 months and I'm kind of excited about it!) and I wanted to update as quick as I could but when you have two little munchkins who like to climb, make a mess and fight with each other every 5 seconds, it's impossible.  
> (I still love them thou~)
> 
> But this chapter does have a slight use of alcohol at the ending, nothing crazy though. Just a little reminder to the readers, if you're younger than the required drinking age in your state, DO NOT DRINK! That's a big no-no!  
> If you ARE, drink responsibly. Do not drink and drive, also a big no-no! Go with someone who isn't drinking and that you trust can get you home safe~!
> 
> Anyways, here's the new chapter and I hope you like it~<3
> 
> (P.S. I have plenty of typo's I have to fix so please excuse le errors, I will most definitely go back to fix them TT^TT)

Something was definitely wrong with Keith.

Shiro had always knew how to tell when something was wrong with Keith when he was little. The younger boy would either be less talkative than he usually already was, doing everything in his power to stay as quiet as he could to avoid anyone finding out he was troubled about something or he would sneak into Shiro’s room in the middle of the night to fall asleep next to him without much of an explanation. His excuses were either nightmares or he just wanted company and Shiro had believed in those excuses, Keith having been like that ever since their mother had passed away. Anyone would think that was normal for a kid so Shiro had never put much thought into any of it, he WAS quite young himself. If anything, Shiro had used to do the same thing with his mother whenever he couldn’t sleep, both him and Keith.

When Keith had turned 13, those habits had came to a complete stop though. Everyone obviously grows out of those habits so of course Shiro didn’t have to worry about Keith’s sudden changes. He didn’t have to worry about Keith becoming a lot quieter as the days, weeks and years had passed by, all teenagers went through that kind of phase, right? He didn’t have to worry about how Keith barely glanced at Shiro every time he went to pick him up from school a couple of blocks away from his own, barely speaking a word when they went back home to their grandparents house or barely saying anything when they ate dinner together every night, right?

Well, Shiro was very wrong.

Keith having been bullied a lot as they grew up, there was a time where Shiro had been at a huge disadvantage while protecting his brother from a group of bullies at Shiro’s new school. Keith had got out of school first, Shiro having been held back a bit longer for his last class because of a test so Keith had waited for him by the school entrance.

While he waited, he had heard some commotion coming from around the school building and Keith would’ve naturally ignored it like he did to everything else but when he heard something similar to a yelp coming from that commotion his body had moved without him realizing it. He had walked to the corner not so very far from the entrance and peeked around it to see a guy cowered down into a squat, surrounded by 4 other males who seemed to have made a mess with the others belongings scattered all over the floor. Keith would’ve naturally turned around to look for help without letting anyone know it was him, he knew what it felt like to be bullied and for some strange, instead of doing what he should’ve had to help the other guy and protect himself, he did the opposite. He had walked away from the wall and into full view as he grabbed a half filled can of soda from the floor and threw it at one of the guy’s heads, the soda inside having spilled on all 4 guys. All eyes were on him, the cowering guy having gotten up and running away for dear life, something Keith should’ve done himself instead of freezing up and letting one of the guys grab him to pull him by the arm into the dimly lit corner of the school.

The moment he was slammed against the wall was when he realized what he did was a huge mistake.

The guys he was surrounded by were all high schoolers, most likely sophomores or juniors but they were a lot taller than Keith, who was still in his second to last year in junior high. Keith didn’t know how to defend himself, especially against people bigger than him in height and weight but he was slowly regretting not taking martial arts with Shiro when their grandparents offered him to.

But that didn’t mean Keith wasn’t going to try.

He knew he couldn’t depend on Shiro to miraculously save him every single time someone felt the urge to bother him so Keith had snarled back at them. Luckily for Keith he managed to get away with a punch to the stomach before Shiro DID miraculously show up and jumped in to save him. Keith didn’t have to run for help like Shiro had told him to, for two teachers had heard the commotion and broke up the fight.

Since the group of guys were known to cause plenty of trouble within the school they were expelled for 2 weeks but since Shiro had _“jumped into the fight instead of seeking out help like he should’ve had”_ , he ended up with 3 days of detention. After Shiro’s small cuts from the hard punches he had gotten had been tended by the school nurse, their grandfather had picked them up from the school and the drive home was pretty quiet except for their grandfather giving them a soft lecture. When they got home, they showered and ate like always but when Shiro had went to his room after they were done, Keith had followed after without a word. Shiro tried everything he could to reassure his little brother he was fine when he noticed him wearing an expression he has never seen him wear, nor could he decipher it and at that very moment Keith had blew up.

He yelled at him, asking why he never cried when stuff like that happened to them, why he didn’t complain or scold Keith for not defending himself, why he didn’t scold him for trying to do the right thing that very day. Shiro had watched the boy shout at him with tears streaming down his small cheeks, every question Keith threw at him summing up to one basic, indirect question:

Why didn’t he act his age growing up?

Shiro knew whatever he said wouldn’t satisfy his younger brothers need for an answer, he knew that whatever he told him would most likely anger him even more.

So he smiled.

It was small, not as bright as his usual smiles but it was soft. It was so soft that Keith continued to cry, Shiro having walked up to him to pull him into a hug just as soft as his smile and whispered to him _, “I promise I’m ok. I’m not dumb enough to get badly hurt and leave you behind. I’m going to protect you no matter what comes our way. Always remember that I love you.”_

Ever since that day, Keith didn’t ask him such questions. He didn’t have to since those questions seemed to have answered itself when Keith had caught Shiro shedding quiet tears afterwards.

Shiro had also slowly began to realize that Keith had tried to barricade his own emotions from showing when he was upset in any kind of way or if he was troubled.

Keyword: tried.

Even though Keith was good at hiding certain emotions from showing when he felt it wasn’t necessary for him to display them to the world, Shiro could still manage to tell when something was bothering him. Even though Keith had changed from being quiet to a talker with the people he was comfortable with, Shiro was able to pick up very small signs from him. If he wasn’t dozing off in the middle of the conversation or in general, he was fidgeting his fingers against each other. Whether it be in his pants pockets, tucked in his hoodie pocket or with his hands clasped low in front of him, Shiro would be able to easily catch on his slight fidgets. Sometimes he would be dozing off AND fidgeting simultaneously, which made it the more obvious but this time it was more than this.

Keith was…a lot more distant. Just like when he was younger.

There was a difference when Keith was distant with Pidge or his friends and coworkers, it was normal to be distant with your friends since it was easier to fall into conversation with them but he hadn’t treated Shiro like this in a very long time.

And as Shiro continued to throw intermediate punches to the black heavy punch back before him, he continued to fall into his heavy thoughts. As he tried to understand what could possibly be wrong with Keith, he continued to punch at the bag with a frown he had no idea he was wearing. That said frown had everyone in the gym keep their distance from him, Shiro’s aura having coming off as pissed but he really wasn’t. Shiro is always the type of person you can easily approach but today didn’t seem like one of those days, at least not to the others around him. Shiro  was simply…confused is all.

He was so deep in thought that he hadn’t realized he was putting more force into his punches, up to the point where he didn’t give the punching bag a chance to swing back to him. He was now letting out soft grunts instead of his heavy breaths, feeling the sweat from his workout trickling down his forehead a bit quicker than before and if it weren’t for his coach who finally decides to walk up to him from behind and pats him on the shoulder, he would’ve most likely began to punch into the bag a little more harder.

“Ey, what’s with the face Kogane? You planin’ on murdering someone with dose’ big guns of yours?” he asks him as he watches Shiro place his hands on either side of the bag to stop it from swinging. His coach, Coach Romano, had held out Shiro’s bottle of water to him along with a fresh and clean white towel for Shiro to wipe himself down, Shiro having taken the bottle first to chug down at least a little less than half of it before grabbing the towel to wipe his sweat-filled face.

“Of course not coach,” he says a tad bit breathlessly with a small smile as he pats his neck dry before leaving the towel hanging around his neck.

“Then what’s with da face champ? You look just about ready to kill the very first person you make eye contact with! Well, excluding me I hope…”

Shiro chuckles softly as he nods his head and pats his Italian accented coach on the arm with reassurance while he says,

“I’m not planning on killing anyone Coach, especially you.”

“Thank the heavens,” he murmurs as he follows Shiro to the metal bench not far from them and stays standing in front of Shiro as he sits himself down.

“I just…have a lot on my mind is all.”

His coach lets out a low hum, Shiro unable to tell if it was simply a hum of understanding or it had more meaning to it. From the straight looking expression on his face, the expression his coach pretty much wears 80% of the time, Shiro could never tell what his coach was thinking but he doesn’t get to think too much of it and it’s not because he has too much on his mind already. His coach had sat himself next to him, Shiro looking at him with confusion evident on his face and seconds later a hand comes to slap him pretty hard on the back, Shiro straightening with wide eyes. He managed to not let any kind of pained sounds come out but he could feel the tears building up at the corner of his eyes because despite Shiro being pretty built in muscle and able to take any punch to the face or body, he could never understand why he could never handle his coach’s back slaps. It always felt like he was being slapped with a smooth surface of a frying pan or a chunk of freshly smoothed out metal. Shiro could never get used to it, all the way from when he was just a scrawny teen to now. Every time his coach striked him it felt as if the shorter man’s strength increased tenfold but luckily for Shiro, he didn’t get back slaps as much as he used to in the beginning.

But Shiro knew those slaps were for encouragement so he couldn’t get mad at the guy…sometimes.

“Since when did you let silly little things like thoughts get to ya, eh?”

Shiro closes his eyes as he tries to take in the stinging on his back, his hand going around to rub at the bottom of his back to try and ease the pain a bit.

“C-Coach, w-was that necessary??” he asks between clenched teeth.

“Of course it was Kogane! I don’t need my greatest fighter lettin’ things like dat get in the way of his trainin’, you’ll be doing your last amateur match here in 2 days before going into your first pro match and I need you focusin’ on what needs to be focused on!”

Shiro lets out a soft groan but not from the sudden news he was just hearing for the first time-

“Wait, what?” he mumbles a little too low but his coach could tell he was surprised form his words just from Shiro’s expression as he watched him stand up. Shiro wasn’t sure if he had heard right so he waits for his coach to speak again with both confusion and surprise on his face. Did he just say what he thought he did…?

“Why you lookin’ at me like that kid? Did I stutter or somethin’?” he asks with a grin on his face. Shiro brings his hand back from his back and lets it hang loose on his knee, eye’s still not breaking away from his coach’s grinning face. Knowing Shiro wasn’t going to say anything he lets out a sigh before saying,

“You heard right kid, this is going to be your last amateur match. People have been looking into your fights and profile like crazy kid, you’re already being scouted for a pretty big match 4 city’s down from here and I think- No, I KNOW you’re ready for it. You’ve been ready Kogane!”

Shiro had most likely frozen when he heard the word scouted, eyes wide and still staring dead into his coach’s own hazel irises but he was as still as a statue. He was surprised and very shocked because…well, this was going to be his very first pro match and he knew once he went in, there was no getting out.

Shiro loved boxing. Even though he had joined this very gym and association with the mindset of wanting to defend both himself and Keith when they were younger, his love for the sport had increased drastically as the years passed by. With all the matches and competitions he had fought in, he had realized that this was something he could do for a living.

And when he had told himself “for a living”, he didn’t mean going pro.

He simply wanted to continue doing the as a hobby, even after growing old in age, just like his very own coach. He could even become a coach himself if he wanted to, just to continue his love for the sport but his coach being the most persistent and stubborn old man he was had forced Shiro to get his license to becoming a pro.

Well, he wasn’t exactly forced into it. It was more like Shiro doing it to satisfy his coach but ever since he had gotten his license 3 years ago, he had only continued to go into amateur matches. Shiro was confused to why his coach wasn’t putting him into the pro league once he had gotten his license but Shiro never asked him, he didn’t want to take that step. He liked where he was, living an easy life without the media following him wherever he went or going against people Shiro knew were way passed his league.

His coach didn’t seem to think that though, having told Shiro that he was going to change his mindset one day, which is why he had signed him up to begin with. He had saw something in Shiro, In the way he fought that told him Shiro was going to make it big. He had told Shiro this plenty of times but Shiro always turned him down by saying he didn’t want any of the fame or grand million prizes that came with such a title. He wanted a simple life for both him and Keith.

“Kogane. Earth to Kogane, you there buddy?” His coach waves his hand in front of Shiro’s face, Shiro not budging even though he blinks a couple of times.

“Close ya mouth Kogane or else you’ll swallow a fly,” he says putting his hand under his chin to push his mouth close, Shiro not even realizing he had his mouth hanging open.

“Come on Kogane, say somethin’! You’re excited, aren’t you?”

“C-Coach,” Shiro finally says snapping out of his shock as he straightens himself up from slouching to stretch his arm over his chest, his other one going over it to push down on it.

“I told you I wasn’t going to take on any matches that would make me an official pro, I don’t want that…and even if I wanted to, I’m not ready for it yet.”

“You can’t be serious kid! This is the first time I’ve dealt with such a stubborn guy like you! Sometimes I just wanna knock you out, you know that?”

And Shiro knew he was capable of it because despite him being in his late 50’s and suffers with minimal arthritis, the man can still pack a pretty heavy punch that hurts like hell. Shiro simply chuckles before his coach sits himself next to him again, leaning closer to him even though it wasn’t really necessary.

“You’re the only one in this damn gym who doesn’t wanna go pro, even though you’ve been had your license AND you’re the best fighter in here! You’re being scouted! Any match you throw yourself into at this moment will have your name all over the place, everyone’s gonna want to pick a bone wit you Kogane, even the pro’s themselves! Why throw away this opportunity when-“

“Coach, we already talked about this. Going pro isn’t what I want and that’s final.”

Shiro stands up from the bench and switches his arms to stretch the other as he walks back to the punching bag. He was hoping his coach would get the message and drop the topic but as mentioned before, he is a very persistent man.

“What’s holdin’ you back Kogane? Is it your lil brotha? Is he telling you not to do it?”

“No coach,” he responds with a soft sigh. Keith would never tell him not to go for it. If anything, Keith also encourages him from time to time to go for pro but the same responses he gives to his coach, he gives to Keith.

“Then who is it? Is it someone here in the gym?”

“No coach.”

“Is it someone outside the gym?”

“No coach.”

“Is it your girlfriend?”

“No coach. And I have a boyfriend, you’ve seen him plenty of times already so stop calling him my girlfriend.”

“I know but he looks like a girl. He’s a nice guy but that kid never changes his hairstyle and his sense of fashion is weird. He’s weird in general and sometimes I question your taste in men even though I’m straight and married but he’s gotta fix himself up…especially if he’s _“hopefully”_ going to be side-by-side a soon to be pro!” he says slapping his arm but with very little force compared to the early back slap. Shiro still slightly flinches from the touch before letting out yet another sigh. He was used to his coach calling Matt weird and he knew not to take his words seriously since he knew his coach knew how important Matt was to him.

“Coach, it’s me. I just don’t want to go that far with this-“

“Exactly kid, it’s YOU! You’re holdin’ yourself back from something that can change your life in the best way possible!”

Shiro pulls the towel from around his neck off and tosses it to his coach before getting into stance but before he could start, his fists were lowered by the said man and Shiro tries not to glare at him but he finds it hard not to. He was being a little too pushy at this point, in Shiro’s opinion of course.

“You love the sport, right?”

Oh no, here it comes.

“You’ve told me plenty of times. After a year of joinin’ my gym you had told me you couldn’t live witout’ it and I saw the spark in your eyes when you had told those words…I can still see that spark Kogane and If you can just think it over before next week comes, I can-“

“I don’t mean to be disrespectful in any type of way coach but how many times do I have to tell you I don’t want any of that? That’s YOUR dream, not mine and I don’t plan on living someone else dream so-“ Shiro hadn’t been looking at his coach when he spoke, having glaring at the punching bag and pushing his hair back with his hand before turning to the older man and when he saw his expression he had stopped. With the surprised look his coach was giving him with the hint of hurt in it he had  realized what he had just said and began to internally punch himself because that was really messed up of him to say. He continued to curse himself out as he lowers his hand slowly from his now messy hair and says,

“Coach, I’m sorry, I-“

“No Kogane, it’s alright…but this isn’t something I want for myself.”

He slings the towel over his shoulder before his expression turns to a serious one.

“Ever since you walked into this gym 7 years ago wit that spark in your eye, I had high hopes from you…I still do as a matter of fact. You’re growth in strength and determination never ceases to amaze me and I know you’ll do great if you just tried but if you’re going to keep coming to me with that half-assed attitude and no real explanation to why you don’t want to pursue YOUR dream…then you can’t stay in my gym anymore.”

Little did they both know that the gym had went quiet when Shiro had let out his outburst and had been listening in on the conversation since then and once those words had been let out, there was a small tension slowly forming throughout the gym. Shiro had frozen himself once again, eyes blown a tad bit wider than before.

He was joking, right?

There was no way his trainer of 7 years would kick him out of the gym because of something like this…right?

Shiro had found it hard to form the words stuck in his throat even as his mouth opened a bit but after a couple of seconds he finally manages to say with the faintest of a smile attempting to come up,

“You’re kidding, right?”

The man said nothing as Shiro tried to find the response he wanted in his eyes. He tried to find even a glint of his cheekiness in the older man’s eyes that could indicate he was joking with him, just to get Shiro to say what he wanted to but…there was nothing.

“Coach, you…you can’t…you don’t really mean that, do you? You wouldn’t just…kick me out, right?”

“When you’re ready to talk seriously about your future with me, you know where to find me Shiro,” were his last words before turning around and leaving Shiro to watch his back as he walked away from him until he had fully disappeared behind the doors that lead to his office.

This…couldn’t be happening, right?

Shiro didn’t just walk to his locker, pack his things, walk out the gym and get kicked out by his very own coach and trainer of 7 years, did he?

 

 

                              **~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

 

It has been 5 days since Lance had been stuck in the lab already for his monthly check up, meaning he had 2 days left until he was back in the aquarium tank for the rest of the month. He had been keeping track of the passing days because unlike the previous monthly checkups he had in his life already, he had something to look forward to when he returned. It wasn’t something for him to be excited about since he knew no matter what happens, his hatred for humans still remained strong.

Just because that guy had mentioned that lady’s name, it didn’t mean he was going to be buddy-buddy with him. He just wanted to know if he was close to her because if he was, that meant he knew his mother too.

Even though mermaids and merman had exquisite memories since birth and can literally remember anything, everything and everyone they meet unlike humans who can only remember certain things as they grow, Lance could barely remember much. It was as if pieces of his memories had been taken from him when he was young and he finds that sometimes his memories don’t match up. He almost felt as if he was half human himself, despite how terrifying that would be for him.

He can remember the people he met when he was younger, the things his mother was able to teach him about their race before she had died and how beautiful she was as clear as ice. He had remembered her telling him about the different kinds of power they had: manipulating the movement of water when on land or out of the water, otherwise known as Hydro-kinesis, communicating with humans and all animals telepathically, being able to share what he saw with others. She had told him to never share the knowledge of his powers with the scientist though, or else they’d use him for bad things and would only torture him for their own needs, to only let them believe telepathy was the only thing they could do. As if they weren’t torturing him enough already…but she was right. Lance knew how vicious the scientist were when it came to wanting to know everything about him and the mer-race. If they knew any more than his telepathy, they would indeed make his life a living hell.

Lance didn’t learn any more than his hydro-kinesis and vision sharing powers though since his mother didn’t make it to teach him everything he should know, leaving Lance with questions and untaught knowledge of what he could do, who he was and about where he came from.

Lance remembered his first time meeting Kimberly in the labs tank when he was 5 though. He was really shy when it came to meeting new humans, especially within the lab but with his mother’s encouragement he managed to befriend her within the couple of hours she had spent talking with them both. Ever since that day, whenever she came over to visit them, if Lance wasn’t being tested on or sleeping, he would join his mother to talk with her.

But something felt off.

Lance couldn’t wrap his finger around it but he had a feeling it had something to do with his mother. As much as he didn’t want to believe the stupid thought, he couldn’t help but think his mother had erased his memories.

Why?

It seemed like he would never find out because once a mermaid or merman erases your mermaid, there was no returning them. Or so his mother had told him when she told him to be careful with using the power.

All Lance could do for now was try to figure things out on his own, if he ever COULD that is.

[Lance?]

Lance had been whipped out of his thoughts when he heard a soft splash from above the tank and a familiar voice call out to him. He turns his attention away from the view of the dark and empty lab to look up at the dark gray sea lion slowly swimming his way from above. It was evident on his face that he must’ve been woken up from sleep for the aquarist to bring him over and Lance felt a bit bad for having them bringing him over so late at night, the time having been 12:28 am according to the device the scientist called a digital clock.

Lance was pretty fascinated when they introduced him to it, it was easier for him to tell day and night apart for when he needed something form the scientist. Lance was being watched 24/7, even when the lab was abandoned for the night. With the cameras set up all over the lab room and inside the huge tank that was placed dead-center of the technology filled room, they were watching him day and night. When Lance wanted or needed something from them when no one was in the room, especially at night, he’d simply swim over to any of the cameras in the tank and gesture for someone’s help. This wasn’t necessary when people were walking in and out during the day since he could telepathically ask for it but Lance was in a huge need for his best friends company.

Ever since his encounter with the human guy, the only thing he could think about was his mother. All he did was think and dream about her for the past couple of days, making it hard for him to even sleep for every day that passed by but ever since Lance was but a small guppy, whenever he needed Hunk for any kind of company they would bring him over from the aquarium. Normally they wouldn’t have but when he was but a young guppy, Lance made it clear that he would not let the scientist touch him or even talk to him without Hunk being there. That had changed as he grew older for various reasons that Lance didn’t want to remember at the moment but whenever he needed Hunk, he’d call for the aquarist to bring him over to the lab.

[Sorry Hunk. I woke you up, didn’t I?] Lance says as he swims up to meet the tired sea lion half way and quickly embraces the big mammal into a hug. His arms don’t wrap around him completely since Hunk was a pretty big mammal but Hunk is able to wrap his large flippers around Lance before Lance twirls them around oh so slowly in the water.

[It’s alright, just…make sure to call for me before bedtime…] Hunk murmurs while attempting to stifle a yawn but fails. Lance leans his head on Hunk’s and nods agreeingly but they both knew Lance would call for him even later if he needed to. Hunk didn’t really mind the late night calls though since he knew it meant Lance needed his company and he knew it was most likely because he was overthinking and unable to sleep.

They both swim in silence as Lance slowly swims them to the very large blue clam shaped bed he had them make for him because sleeping while floating was very uncomfortable, tiring task and to end up on the floor is even worst in comfort. It was large enough for Lance to curl his large blue tail to fit comfortably without it hanging out AND for Hunk to fit, despite him being larger in size. The top of the clam was halfway open with a blue thick like blanket to cover the rest of the open clam, no one able to look in nor could Lance look out but there wasn’t a need to look out anyways. He’d only be frightened with the montage of humans walking around when he awoken anyways.

Lance pushes through the curtain-like blanket before snuggling down into the soft, light blue cushion of the bed with Hunk still in his arms. They both snuggle around to get themselves more comfortable before falling still and silent. They stay like this for a couple of seconds before Hunk mumbles,

[Air bubble.]

[Right, almost forgot. Sorry buddy] Lance mumbles back as he softly places his hand on Hunk’s nose and slowly pulls it back to form an air filled bubble around Hunk’s head. That was another one of lance’s powers that he seemed to figure out on his own a good 2 to 3 years back and since Hunk can’t breathe under water for more than 20 minutes, Lance helps him out with that by messing with his hydro-kinesis a bit so instead of forming useless water bubbles under water, he can make it so that there was air inside instead of water inside. How he managed to do it, he still doesn’t know but he doesn’t question it either since he could now have his best friend with him under the water with him for as long as he wanted.

New quirks can be put to work.

After Lance places his hand around Hunk once again, they both fall still and silent once again. When Lance closes his eyes and is sure he was ready to knock out, Hunk has him opening one eye to look down at him when he asks,

[Are you ok?]

[I am now, now that you’re here with me big guy~] Lance says snuggling the round mammal closer before letting his grip around him loosen again.

[Do you want to talk about it?]

[….Do you?]

[Lance.]

[Ok Ok,] Lance huffs before leaning his head on the mammals air bubble since he couldn’t lean it on his head anymore, which was a very sturdy and hard to pop bubble by the way.

They stood the way they were, hugging each other close as Lance explained to him what had happened the last day at the aquarium before he was transferred to the lab. Hunk had listened quietly but once Lance had finished he pushed himself of him to look up at him. If he had eyebrows, they would be raised at the merman but his expression still portrayed both confusion and worry as he asked,

[Lance, do you know how dangerous what you’re doing is? If the aquarist or scientist find out about this and see you talking to someone outside the tank, they’ll only strengthen the barrier inside the tank…or worse. What if that guy lied when he told you he wasn’t a scientist? What if they were testing you and you failed?? They’ll probably keep you trapped in here for the rest of your life and…and they’ll separate us! I don’t want to be separated Lance, we already went through so many punishments- YOU went through so many punishments and for you to be risking something like that for a HUMAN nonetheless isn’t-!]

[Woah there buddy, let’s stop and take a breather, yeah?] Lance interrupts him by grabbing a hold of the wide-eyed mammal’s flipper and caressing it with a smile that looked on the verge to a grin.

[I don’t want to be separated either but I highly doubt the guy was lying. If he was, they would’ve told me that I failed their test the moment I entered the lab, or whatever-]

His smile never makes it to the grin and instead it fades into a small frown, Lance falling back into his thoughts as he says in a soft tone,

[But I can’t just ignore this.]

Hunk looks Lance in the eyes as he watches his expression shift to a frown. He hated seeing him with such an expression, even though it had been a while since Lance had worn such a face and it surprised Hunk a bit.

[That guy knows Kimberly. If he knows her, then that means he might know something about my mom. Maybe my mom left something with Kimberly before they both passed away and that guy has it, maybe…maybe he’s a part of my missing memory Hunk. Even if he’s not an important part of it, it’s still something to discovering what my mom was trying to hide from me.]

[Lance…] was all Hunk could say as he watched the merman run his fingers over his flipper. He would’ve naturally found the soft touches ticklish but he couldn’t laugh, let alone smile when his best friend looked so down. He could tell this was really important to him and who was Hunk to stop him from at least finding out about his own mother? If anything, he would help him if he could.

[If-] Hunk started before letting out a soft sigh.

[If this is really important for you…then count me in. If you ever need my help, you know you can count on me.]

[Thanks big guy] Lance says with an appreciative smile.

Hunk wriggles his flipper out of Lance’s hands to pat his side as he says,

[Just, you know, don’t get caught Ok? You’re the only family I have left and I can’t lose you too…And if that guy yells at you again you let me know, I’ll find a way to jump out the tank and give him a piece of my own mind! And flippers!]

He slaps lance’s side to show him what he meant but in a soft way, Lance giggling before joining in and doing the same to Hunk as he says between his giggling

[How, Like this??]

The two go at it for a couple of minutes, softly hitting and ticking each other before Lance pulls Hunk into a hug once again, Lance’s giggling going to a halt but a small smile now in place.

[I promise I won’t get caught. You’re the only family I have too buddy.]

They fall still and silent once again and this time they stay that way, sleep finding its way into them. Now that Lance had let out what he needed to and felt a lot more relaxed, he was able to close his eyes with a clear mind. Before he could fall asleep he whispers softly to the already sleeping mammal in his arms,

[Thank you.]

 

                                **~ >~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~**

 

Keith had locked himself in his room after finishing his shift at the café. He had went straight into his mother’s belonging of the mermaid and he wasn’t sure he had gotten any progress with it within the past 5 days.

The only things he had were simple interviews his mother did with the mermaid, asking her how she had met the fisherman, where they had met, what she had been doing when she encountered with the fisherman and other basic questions about her love-life with the human. There were small articles his mother had typed into her laptop about how she disagreed with how they handled the mermaid when they took her in and how they shouldn’t had brought her onto land, discussing how inhumane that was, how inhumane THEY were. It was all based on her opinions but he found it really strange that the further he went through the laptop and the little bits and pieces of her paperwork, there was nothing that stated of the mermaids pregnancy. There wasn’t anything about the birth of the merman and he figured it had to be both the scientist and government covering that up since he had only been introduced to the world a year after the mermaid’s death.

But the fact the merman knew his mother’s name must’ve meant she knew about the pregnancy and the merman’s birth. They must’ve had met. There was a small possibility his mother could’ve been there for the birth, the interviews and small articles giving off the feeling that the two woman were quite close. Maybe that could’ve explained the reason why she had been temporality prohibited from seeing the mermaid for a couple of years according to one of the articles. Maybe she had to wait until the merman was of age before his uncle let her interact with the mermaid again and her son.

There was so many if’s, what’s, how’s and but’s going through Keith’s head as he scribbled his own thoughts and theory’s in his own black and red 3½ x 5 journal but before he could continue to go into another session of questions in his head he hears the front door open.

As he sat with his legs perched up and close to his chest in the comfort of his bed with his journal propped on his lap, surrounded by papers and his mother’s silver laptop on his side he lifts his head from the journal and looks at his closed door when hearing the outside door. He then looks to his phone for the time and when he sees its 15 minutes before 1 am, he lifts his reading glasses up to his head and lets out a tired sigh.

Keith had been a bit surprised when Shiro texted him while he was at work, telling him he was going to be home early from the gym and was going to cook before Keith got home. When Keith got home after work, he was even more surprised to see that his brother wasn’t even home. He had texted him and called him multiple times for 3 hours straight to only be sent to his voicemail or not get a text back, making Keith very worried. Shiro had never done something like this before and the fact he didn’t get a response from him in for the past 3 hours had Keith going to the front door to slip his shoes back on to go look for him but when he gets a text from Matt telling him Shiro was with him, he lets out a heavy breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

Hours after that text, Keith is standing in front of the couch in the living room with his arms crossed over his chest and a frown. Matt stood standing next to him with the same exact posture and expression as they both watched the unconscious man below them sprawled out on the couch, the stench of alcohol seeping from him. Keith reaches one hand behind his bare neck, having tied up his hair into a ponytail and clipping his rather long bangs back with a plain black hair clip and rubs on it a bit lazily.

“I tried stopping him after his 3rd drink but he kept promising the next was his last over and over again until…that happened,” Matt says with the slight nod of his head with disbelief. Matt had really did try stopping him but Shiro seemed pretty down from what he had told him so he kind of let him drink one more drink after his 3rd.

Which turned into a 4th, 3 shots of some hard smelling liquor Matt has never seen or heard of before and 2 more drinks afterwards.

So Matt may had been at fault for letting him drink that extra drink but he didn’t think Shiro would go as far as the shots. Shiro naturally wasn’t a heavy drinker and only drank on special occasions, nothing heavy and he would always stick to the same drinks but he had went pretty hard tonight. A little too hard for both Keith and Matt’s liking.

“So how many drinks was that again?” Keith asks as he closes his eyes and now brings the hand rubbing his neck up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“I believe…6 drinks and 3 shots?”

Keith’s eyes widen in shock as he lowers his hand from his nose to be able to look at Matt with disbelief.

“Were you really sitting there watch him drink all that?!”

“Like I said, I tried stopping him but he called me out of work and by the time I got there he was already on the 3rd drink. He also told me if I stopped him he would only continue to drink at home. Please tell me you don’t have liquor here.”

“Of course not. You know we aren’t drinkers,” Keith nearly mumbles as he turns his head to frown at his sleeping brother once again.

This wasn’t like Shiro at all. Keith had never seen him knocked out cold from drinks before and he didn’t like the sight of it. It must’ve had something to do with him leaving the gym earlier than he did, which had Keith asking Matt,

“Why was he drinking in the first place anyways?”

“I’m surprised he didn’t tell you before going to the bar,” he says with raised brows and unfolding his arms to place them on his hips.

“But he was pretty upset because his coach kicked him out of the gym.”

Keith’s eyes widen once again as he turns to look at Matt.

“He what?”

“There’s no on need to worry though. From the way Takashi explained everything to me, it only seems like it’s temporary and not permanent. If only Takashi listened carefully to his coach’s words, he wouldn’t had misinterpreted them and I tried explaining that to him too but he was kind of already too far into the drinks…”

“What exactly DID Shiro tell you?”

“I’ll let him tell you the rest when he wakes up tomorrow,” Matt says with a small smile.

“I’m also going to have to leave the rest up to you since I had to carry his heavy ass to the car and inside the living room,” Matt says walking up to Shiro and pushing some white strands of his hangs out of his face with a small smile.

“As much as I want to help my hunky monkey recover, I have to wake up early for work tomorrow so I’ll leave the rest to you for now. Oh, he didn’t get to eat anything so if you don’t want to wake up to a creature in the bathroom, I highly suggest getting him to eat some of the Miso soup his lovely boyfriend bought for him before he gets too deep into sleep. He’s gotta get something to sponge up the alcohol a bit too. I’m pretty sure he’s still alive somewhere in there.”

Matt places a kiss on Shiro’s forehead before giving Keith the small black bag that contained the bowl of said soup and pats Keith’s arm as he passes him to make his way for the door. Keith thanks him and tells him to get home safe, Matt responding with a hum before he walks out the front door and closes it. Keith turns back to his unconscious brother, who was now incoherently mumbling words Keith couldn’t decipher at all and all he could do was sigh in response.

Keith digs into the bag to pull out the bowl of soup and places it on the coffee table in front of the couch before going to the kitchen to grab a spoon and a bottle of fresh water. He walks back into the living and places both of the items beside the soup before turning to Shiro and attempting to sit him upright. Even though he was lifting him, Keith could see the trouble Matt most likely went through with how heavy he felt. Keith already knew he was heavy to begin with, especially with the many times Shiro would playfully throw himself on top of him but this was pretty much dead body weight at the moment and Keith wasn’t about to struggle to get him up the stairs to his room.

He manages to have Shiro sit up decently enough to be able to feed him the soup, despite his head hanging with his chin on his chest and as he gets the soup ready Keith tries to talk him awake, even if for a couple of minutes. Luckily for Keith, he manages to get Shiro to crack his eyes open by a little less than a centimeter and begins to feed him the soup.

At first Shiro had let the contents spill out his mouth before finally mumbling clearly but slurred,

“Hmm…Matthew, what…what is that, it’s sho salty….”

“Shiro, stop spitting out the soup like a 3 year old and eat it,” Keith says digging the spoon in for more soup and holding it to his mouth.

“Keiths? Is that my little brother of mine?” he mumbles with a small smile as he turns his head and reaches his hands out to the side to grab him into a hug but Keith puts the spoon in the bowl and moves back just in time. He puts the bottom of his palm on Shiro’s forehead and pushes him back against the couch before grabbing a spoon full of the soup again.

“Last time I checked, I’m the only Keith you have as a sibling. Now open already and eat the soup,” Keith says holding the spoon to Shiro’s mouth.

“No, I don’t want it,” Shiro whines as he turns his head away from the spoon and slightly pouting his lips.

His older brother who was 3 years older than him and a pretty muscular man who boxes for a living was spitting out food like a 3 year old, whining and pouting. Keith couldn’t believe what he was dealing with right now.

Keith did everything he could to fight through Shiro’s stubbornness as he manages to force him to eat the soup while drinking sips of water in between. After about an hour of feeding him, changing his t-shirt into a sleeveless t-shirt and pulling off his sneakers he lays him back on the couch and goes to the hall to grab a blanket from the closet to cover him. It was better for Shiro to sleep on the couch regardless since he would be closer to the bathroom on the first floor and have quicker access to the kitchen if he needed water but Keith made sure to leave one on the coffee table for him along with a bucket, just in case he didn’t make it to the bathroom.

After making sure Shiro was tucked in and completely knocked out, he goes up to his own room and closes it, not finding it necessary to lock it before going back to his bed. He slides his glasses down from his head back to his eyes and continues to scribble down some notes. He doesn’t realize he had continued to do so up to 3 in the morning until he glances down at the time on the laptop while reading over some typed-up interviews. He decides to call it a night as he powers off the laptop, gathers everything up to place it back into his closet and places his glasses on his computer desk before climbing into bed. He doesn’t bother covering himself since it was pretty hot and they still hadn’t been able to get a new air conditioner. Mainly because they kept forgetting to make time but Keith was considering in getting it later on in the afternoon after waking up.

As he stared up at his pale ceiling, he tried not to let his mind wander any more than it had been doing the whole day. He couldn’t help but think of all the research he had did so far and the questions he had for the merman, hoping everything turned out the way he wanted to, with the answers he needed.

A couple of minutes more of him staring at his ceiling he begins to doze off and closes his eyes, falling asleep seconds later with a surprisingly clear mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to point out that even though this is a Klance fic 10000%, I'll be writing in the other characters from time to time. It may be boring and could take a while before the good stuff comes in (and I apologize before hand... X/ ) but I do promise it will get better! 
> 
> The main characters are Keith and Lance but the others (Hunk, Pidge, Matt, Shiro, Allura and Coran) do come in second and they do play a big part in the main pairings story so I'm gonna be putting them in just as much as Klance~!  
> (I honestly hope I made sense but yeah... ^_^')
> 
> Also, I'm not sure if this is going to be a mature fic yet but I'm putting it up just in case I change my mind (I most likely will though... :D )
> 
> Anywho, hope you enjoyed and sorry for the late chapter :'D


	6. Risky Favor

Keith was sure he would wake up to his brother throwing up his guts in the bathroom, complaining about a headache and swearing to never ever drink again but boy was he wrong.

When the strong scent of freshly made coffee and most likely bacon makes his way through his nose, he could slowly feel his senses coming to until his eyes begin to slowly open and close. He lets out a soft hum to the scent and when he felt his eyes beginning to close again in hopes of falling back asleep despite the tempting smell of freshly made coffee and food, he hears an all too familiar voice that also helps Keith to believe he wasn’t still dreaming either softly say, “Good Morning sleepy head.”

Keith’s eyes open completely before he turns both his head upper body half way to look at Shiro who was sitting on the bed behind him with a small smile, leg crossed over the other one and his gray cup of coffee in his hands. Keith was still trying to push away his dazed senses as he turns himself on his back to sit up before looking to Shiro with a raised brow but he knew he was only going to look like he got something in his eye since his eye where his brow was raised was nearly halfway open.

“Shiro, what-“ Keith started but when his eyes landed on the tray of food on the bed next to him he was officially at a loss of words. 3 freshly cooked strips of bacon, scrambled eggs with small pieces of pepper in it and a medium sized croissant laid freshly in the white plate while a warm cup of coffee sat right beside it in the light brown tray next him. Just from the scent of it all had Keith’s empty morning stomach nearly growl because Shiro was seriously a really good cook and Keith wanted nothing more than to grab the steaming cup of caffeine so he could wake himself up but the fact that his brother was sitting on front of him like he hadn’t been completely drunk and out of it the day before had him sitting there in awe.

“Are you…feeling ok?” Keith manages to mumble out without his morning voice cracking.

“I’m fine. Why do you ask?” Shiro says with a raised brow now. Keith’s eyes widen just a tad bit as he looked at his brother with disbelief because Shiro had really just asked him why he was ok. After what had happened a good couple of hours ago before they had fell asleep.

“Gee, I don’t know, maybe it’s because your boyfriend drove and carried you in from the bar after you drank half of their liquor?” Keith says as he finally decides to grab hold of the red cup and takes a small whiff of morning heaven before taking a sip of it.

“Was I really that drunk?”

“Seriously?” Keith deadpans as he looks up from his cup to Shiro.

“Shouldn’t the fact that you don’t remember answer your question?”

“Point taken,” he says with a small chuckle before looking down at his already half empty cup.

“Sorry if I troubled you last night, it wasn’t my day yesterday.”

Keith holds his cup up to fold his legs under the blanket before placing it on his covered lap before looking up at Shiro with a small smile.

“You know there’s no need to apologize, right? I am your brother you know,” Keith says chuckling himself.

“As for your boyfriend, you might want to pay him a visit. Maybe buy some flowers or something on the way.”

Shiro nods agreeingly before taking a sip of his coffee. He knew Matt would most likely say the same thing but it wasn’t like him to get himself drunk to the point he wouldn’t even remember anything. He had been planning to visit Matt regardless since he knew he was the last person he remembered seeing before blacking out and he knew Matt must’ve struggled to bring him home.

“I was already planning on going but not with the flowers. Matt has some pretty bad allergies and I don’t need him sneezing all over me,” He says with a small smile before taking another sip from his cup. “I surprisingly woke up without the need to throw up but I did wake up with a pretty bad headache…I still managed to make breakfast though and I already ate so make sure to eat before you head out to work.”

Shiro unfolds his leg to get up but before he could push himself off the bed, he turns to look at Keith when he hears him say, “You wanna talk about what happened yesterday before you leave?”

He had almost forgotten to tell Keith about it and he hadn’t plan on not telling him so with his fingers slightly tightening around his cup, he mumbles a soft, “Yeah,” before beginning to explain to him what had drove him to drink more than what he usually would. While Shiro talked, Keith listened openly while slowly picking at his breakfast, not wanting it to get cold by the time they finished but it was as Matt had explained to him before he had left. Shiro had clearly been temporarily kicked out but Shiro seemed to have been taking it a bit more seriously and Keith realized it wasn’t from misunderstanding his coach. Shiro was simply confused. He seemed to be unsure of whether if he should continue to keep boxing as a hobby or turn it into a career, or so Keith could clearly see. He was always aware of how Shiro felt about boxing in general and Keith had tried numerous times to try and convince him to go pro because he could tell deep down inside that Shiro wanted to go pro but he was holding back. He was holding back for many reason but Keith knew he was the main one.

He knew how protective Shiro was with him, he had always been that way since they were little and Keith knew that Shiro didn’t want to leave Keith behind. It was an old habit that seemed to have stuck with him and an old habit that Keith had to shake out of him since they were both fully grown adults who needed to live their own lives.

“Shiro, you know damn well you want this and DON’T you dare deny it,” Keith says letting one hand off his cup to hold up a finger when he sees Shiro open his mouth to do just that. When he sees Shiro close his mouth and relaxes, Keith let’s his hand fall back down to his hold his cup and gives his brother a worried expression before mumbling softly,

“What could possibly be holding you back Shiro? Isn’t this what you want?”

As mentioned, Keith already knew the answer to this but if he could get Shiro to say it himself, he’d know what to tell him but as Shiro looked down at his own cup without saying a word, Keith knew he had to tell him even if he didn’t admit it.

“Shiro, we…we aren’t kids anymore. You don’t have to keep yourself behind for me, I don’t need protecting anymore. I know how to live on my own-“

“Keith, you’re not-“

“Yeah, I know I’m not the only thing holding you back. I know you have your own personal reasons I don’t know about and you don’t need to tell me, just as long as they aren’t life threatening but you can’t let all those things hold you back from what you want to do. Don’t make me the reason you don’t want to achieve your dream because that…will only make me feel guilty…”

Shiro’s eyes widen as he looks to Keith, Keith’s fingers tightening around his now warm cup as he watches the steam lift its way out of the cup.

“If anything, you going pro would make me a really happy and proud brother…it would also make Matt and Coach Romano happy. It’ll…make mom happy too.”

He finally looks up to Shiro to see the shocked expression on his face but he still gives him a small smile as he says, “So really think it over, ok?”

When Keith doesn’t see any kind of reaction coming from Shiro but the blinking of his eyes, he could feel his cheeks heat up. Keith wasn’t comfortable with giving advice or words of encouragement, whether it be to his own brother or to anyone else. He felt others would see him as a softie, which is why he had always been a quite person since he was little and since he had only received words of encouragement from both Shiro and his mother, he wasn’t used to receiving them himself.

“A-And don’t make me have to say this again…just do what you want already,” Keith mumbles as he looks back down to his cup in an attempt to hide his now pink cheeks and small pout. He then hears a soft laughter, his head shooting up to see Shiro laughing. Keith was pretty sure it was because he knew he was embarrassed but Keith couldn’t help but smile himself. Shiro looked a little more relaxed and…relieved. That made Keith feel relieved himself for some reason but he wasn’t planning on questioning himself.

When Shiro finally calms down he reaches his hand out to ruffle Keith’s already messy bed hair, Keith groaning in response as he lifts his hand and struggles to push Shiro’s hand away as he pouts.

“Alright Alright, I’ll think it over. No need to get embarrassed,” Shiro teases before Keith successfully manages to push his hand off his head without spilling his own coffee.

“I’m not embarrassed,” Keith mumbles more to himself as he watches Shiro stand up from the bed and walk towards the door. When Shiro opens the door he stops to turn around and looks to Keith, who had thought Shiro had left already so he continued to finish what was left of his breakfast. Shiro’s smile was warm as he thanked his younger brother quietly in his mind before walking out.

Shiro had been the first to leave the house after finishing his coffee and washing up, wanting to do some early morning exercise before heading to Matt’s place as planned to apologize. Afterwards, he would have to go to his part-time job down at One Way Mechanics, a shop that fixes pretty much anything that ranges from phones and computers to any kind of moving vehicle. Shiro usually works at the shop at least once to twice a week since boxing usually takes up the majority of his time but luckily for him, Matt’s mother owned the little shop so she didn’t mind him coming in whenever he could since she knew of his love for boxing.

Keith, on the other hand, had rushed to wash up and get into some fresh clothes because by the time he decided to finally get out of bed, he had just realized he was running late for his morning shift at the café. He had thought it was a good idea to stay lying in bed even after Shiro had left for a couple of more minutes but those minutes turned into an hour and a half and when he glanced over at the time, he nearly had a heart attack.

He grabs what he needs before rushing out the door, locking it before rushing down the street to grab a bus since he wasn’t up for walking. It wasn’t a long enough ride to take the car either and to find parking either way would only make him later since there was hardly any parking around the café. He gets on the bus and while he’s sitting down, he pulls out his phone to thank Shiro for the breakfast, Shiro not giving him enough time to thank him. 15 minutes later Keith was off the bus and turning the block to enter the café, before he could enter the back to grab his apron he was already being scolded by his other co-workers but Keith never paid any mind to them since they were always the type to complain and whine about anything and everything.

Luckily the café wasn’t packed, despite it always being packed in the mornings and afternoons but as Keith walked up to the cash register to take over for his fellow coworker’s position, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander. His thoughts were uncontrollable ever since his encounter with the Merman and even as he worked or tried to focus on the story he needed to finish up within the next upcoming week, the Merman would pop right into his head.

[It seemed like his interaction with humans was very limited, except for the scientists and aquarist of course. He doesn’t seem to like humans in general anyways, he called humans “killers”. Could he possibly be referring to the scientists? If so, why is he calling them killers? Is he possibly blaming the death of his mother on the scientist? And how did he know mom? Do we know the same Kimberly or is he confusing my mother with someone else? Could he possibly be…blaming mom for…]

Keith was a bit scared to finish that thought. There was no way something like that could be true. He would never believe that his mother, a smart and kind-hearted woman would be able to do such a thing. There was no way she-

“Earth to Keith!”

Keith blinks a couple of times to snap himself out of his thoughts and finally feels the cold liquid spilling over his hand. He looks down to the cup he was holding to see the milk over flowing from it and he pulls his other hand up to prevent himself from spilling anymore milk out of the carton and onto the now milk-filled counter beneath the cup. He curses under his breath as he lets the cup handle go and puts the milk down on the clean part of the counter before going to grab a clean washcloth to wipe up the spilt milk.

“We’re all tired Kogane but that doesn’t mean you can walk in here every day wasting our ingredients! They aren’t cheap and I know you don’t want those expenses pulled out of your paycheck!” his manager scolds him, who just so happened to walk in at that very moment.

Lucky Keith.

Keith mumbles an apology before finishing to clean up his mess and remakes the order he had messed up. Thanks to the Merman encounter, things had been like this at work for the past week and Keith was sure that if he kept this up, he was sure to get fired soon. Either that or he’d quit from having to hear his manager yell at him for any little thing because the man was a yeller. Two hours after opening time it was always quiet whenever Keith works the morning shifts. The soft buzz of people’s chattering come and go, the clattering of the equipment along with the scent of pure caffeine would fill the room but it was all relaxing. After two hours, the morning was officially interrupted and ruined thanks to their manager. The man simply couldn’t go without scolding someone or yelling out orders, the man’s obnoxious tone making Keith wonder if he should really be working there to begin with.

But Keith needed the job.

He needed to help Shiro with paying off the house and the bills they had, he had to help with bringing in food for them to eat. There was no way he could let all of that responsibility fall onto Shiro and if it meant Keith getting yelled at by an obnoxiously loud old man who shouldn’t be working at the café to begin with, then so be it.

As the day went by oh so slowly, Keith managed to have his mind clear and focused on work 95 percent of the time. The other 5 percent wouldn’t stop thinking about how he was going to get into the aquarium. He honestly didn’t have the money for a one-time VIP entrance that cost almost 130 dollars and he certainly wasn’t going to ask Shiro for such a huge amount of money. The pricing was ridiculously high for a one day pass but at the same time it made sense with how large the place was, the aquarium being the largest one in the world and all.

Regardless of it all, Keith had no money to spend on a VIP pass. He didn’t want to sneak in either since the security is pretty heavy, or so he had learned from the Merman, so his chances with getting in would be a 0000.1 percent.

There was only one way he could get in without having to worry about illegally intruding.

That free VIP pass went by the name Matt Holt.

 

                               ~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~

 

Keith had so many reasons to why he shouldn’t be standing in front of the Holt’s home ready to ask for such a huge favor form his brothers boyfriend. Those reasons were but not limited to:

  1. Matt finding it strange for Keith to find sudden interest in returning to the aquarium.
  2. Matt would interrogate him and ask him why he would want yet another free VIP pass for the aquarium when he could’ve sworn Keith was bored by the place.
  3. He would tell Shiro he stopped by to ask for said pass and Shiro would ALSO interrogate him with the 5 W’s
  4. Pidge would make fun of him for wanting to even go back.
  5. And Pidge would make fun of him for wanting to go back.



There was a bigger reason to why Keith shouldn’t have been knocking at the door of the Holt’s home though and it had to do with Shiro.

There was a time when Keith had gotten way too obsessed over his mothers work after she had passed. This was around the time Keith had first realized he wanted to pursue writing just like his mother but a lot of things had happened right after she had passed.

As mentioned before, his mothers work was based off of the mistreatment of the mermaid and her love-life with the fisherman. She had conducted her own little research about the mermaid but it wasn’t anything that the scientist didn’t know about. When she had passed, word had gotten out within the scientists, ichthyologist and aquarist that someone had been letting her in to see the mermaid personally and an investigation had been set on finding out who it was. The person was to be arrested for having tamper with government property and god who knows what else was to happen to that person.

Both Keith and Shiro obviously knew it was their very own uncle and having been the kind hearted kids they were raised to be, they hadn’t said a word to anyone, even after they were taken in by the detectives for questioning.

Before they were taken in though, they had watched their very home being raided by police and detectives, rummaging through every nook and cranny and collecting things for any evidence of her helper or information that shouldn’t have been in her possession. They both watched in shock and fear as their only home became wrecked little by little, simply watching the police go in and out of their home.

But before any of that had happened, Shiro had gotten a letter from a complete stranger.

A day after the interrogations him and Keith were put under, they had went back to school like nothing had happened. Well, Shiro had went back alone since Keith was still in a bit of a shock to go back to school. As Shiro was walking home from school, a man wearing a black hoodie had stood in front of him and held out a white letter to him. Shiro hesitated at first before grabbing the white envelope and as he was about to ask who the man was, he had walked away from him. Shiro had called out to him but was ignored until the man had disappeared. He had then opened the letter to read it and once he had read it, he began to run.

He ran as fast as he could, going down block after block in the opposite direction from his grandparents’ home until he had reached his mother’s home. HIS home.

Luckily Shiro had always carried the keys to the house and was able to get in seconds after rummaging through his bag. He had went straight into his mother’s room and began to grab the little things that belonged to her, from small piles of paper to her laptop, anything he thought to be valuable like the letter had told him and stuffed them all into his backpack. Luckily for him there wasn’t much to grab, his mother being on the neat and organized side but once he had grabbed what he could, he runs over to his own bedroom and closes the door before running over to his bed. He places the bag onto his bed before moving the bed itself to the side as far as he could away from the wall. He grabs his bag and walks to the exposed floor now behind his bed. With a rough kick to the wooden floor beneath him, Shiro pops up a tile big enough to fit his backpack in it and once it was cozied in he places the tile back in perfectly. It was his own hiding spot when he wanted to hide his things and what better way to hide the little bit of things his mother had left behind before they could be taken away from him and Keith by the detectives?

Right when Shiro was about to leave he had bumped into Keith, who had sneaked into the house because he felt comfort from being in their own home. The two didn’t have enough time to leave before the police and detectives arrived at that moment.

6 years after the invasion and interrogation, they both hadn’t stepped foot into the house until Shiro had decided to tell Keith about the things he had hidden from the detectives. Since their uncle had been paying off the house so that Shiro could take over when he was of age, they still had access to it so Shiro had took him back to show him exactly what he had hidden. When they both went through everything Shiro had packed into the backpack, Keith decided he was going to stay with everything and Shiro had let him. Little did Shiro know that Keith would get so into his mother’s previous research to the point that his grades in school had dropped drastically and if he didn’t fix them, he could repeat the grade.

Shiro had managed to pack everything up into the same backpack he had packed it in 6 years back after getting out of school earlier than Keith. When Keith had gotten home, Shiro had threatened to confiscate everything from him for good if he didn’t bring his grades back up. Keith had promised to do just that but Shiro didn’t give him the backpack until Keith actually raised his grades and passed.

Ever since then, Keith didn’t let his mothers work get the better of him because as he matured he realized he had to do things the right way. He knew there was so much more than what he contained from his mothers work and he wanted to find out what it was. He had a feeling it all had to do with the mermaid and that was where Keith was going to start. Keith didn’t want to think so negatively about his mother’s death but deep down inside he felt that there was more to her death than a car accident and he had to try to prove himself right or wrong in order for him to really forget everything and to live a normal life.

This was something he hadn’t talked to Shiro about yet because he knew he needed solid evidence in order to convince him. Keith also knew that digging deeper into this would only worry Shiro because this meant Keith had to go against so many authorities to prove himself if he was right but Keith didn’t care. If Keith had to dig his own grave in order to bring his mother’s truthful work out to the world, then so be it.

If asking Matt for this favor was the first step to his grave…then so be it.

“Hey Keith, it’s good to see you,” Matt had greeted with a smile when opening the door.

“Likewise,” Keith says returning the smile with a smaller one.

“If you’re looking for Katie, she won’t be home for another half an hour. She went down to the tracks with our mother but if you want to wait for her you’re more than welcome to.”

“No, that’s alright. I, uh…I actually came here to talk to you. Are you busy?” he asks as he shoves his hands into his pockets so he wouldn’t show how nervous he actually was right now by fidgeting with his fingers. Matt raised an amused brow as he says,

“Well this is new. Lucky for you I won’t be busy until your brother comes out of work in an hour since he promised to take me out on “the best date ever” as an apology for hauling his heavy ass home. Lucky for HIM I’m head over heels for him and just being with him makes me happy.”

Keith’s smile goes up a bit to that before Matt opens his door to let him in and says,

“Come on in Kogane.”

Keith walks in past Matt and slowly makes his way to the living room as Matt locks the front door. Right when Keith makes it to the living room, Matt was right behind him and he gestures for Keith to sit anywhere he’d like before sitting down himself. Keith needing to make eye contact for what he was going to say and do, he decides to sit himself across from Matt. His hands are now out of his pocket and on top of his lap and as the they sat in silence for maybe around 3 seconds, Keith tried to think of how he was going to ask Matt for yet another VIP pass, if it was even possible. Sadly he didn’t have enough time to think of something good enough for Matt had broken the silence.

“So what is it you want to talk to me about?”

Keith still had no idea how to go about the conversation so he trusted his mind to give him a random idea to spur and says,

“I, Um…I kind of told a friend at work that I knew someone who worked at the aquarium and that someone was given free tickets to said aquarium the other day because he worked there. He was wondering if I could possibly get tickets for us to go together tomorrow since I told him I already went and he wanted me to show him around…“

Shit. That sounded a little too weird and uncoordinated for Keith’s liking but that wasn’t what had Keith feeling even more nervous than he already was. Matt was looking at him with a raised brow and Keith was sure he was onto him, he knew he was going to get hit with questions of interrogation but little did Keith know that those questions weren’t going to be what he had expected.

“I-I know I’m asking for too much and I understand if you can’t do it. I can find a way to buy it myself-“Keith obviously lied. “But I’m a little short on money so I was hoping you could help me out this one time?”

When Keith looks up from his lap, he sees Matt suddenly grinning at him. Keith blinks back at him a bit confused before Matt says,

“Am I sensing a date here~?”

Keith blinks a couple of times once again as he began to wonder if he should go along with Matt’s ridiculous senses or deny it to attempt at another lie. He came out short of any ideas so “fake date” it was. What harm could lying about a fake date bring anyways, right?

Besides, he COULD call it a “date”, just not with his coworker.

You could call it a “Fishy Date”.

“Y-Yeah, I guess…”

“Alright, I’ll help you out,” Matt says with his grin falling back to a smile. Keith almost couldn’t believe his ears, this was a lot more simpler than he thought it would be.

“But before I do anything, you need to answer some questions for me.”

Keith tries not to fidget in his seat because somewhere deep inside of him was telling him Matt was going to ask questions he shouldn’t be asking.

Questions about the Merman.

But there was no way Matt would know that Keith knew anything, right? Shiro had promised Keith multiple times that he wouldn’t tell Matt about their mother having met the mermaid or about the belongings they were able to hold onto. Keith MADE Shiro promise.

“Who’s the lucky guy that was able to grab a hold of that heart of yours?”

“Huh?” was all Keith could let out as he blinks repeatedly at the other male with confusion.

“You said you worked with him, right? How long have you guys known each other? Are you guys already dating or is this your first date?”

“Um, W-Well-“

“Does Shiro know about this? Do you not want him to know about this yet? I promise I won’t say anything to him so just say the word and-“

“H-Hold on Matt, Don’t you think you’re a little more excited about his than me?” Keith says with a small chuckle as he brings his hand up to rub at the back of his neck. Matt let’s out a soft chuckle himself as he folds one leg over the other and leans forward a bit, nodding his head as he agrees with him.

“Yeah, you’re right. Sorry about that, I’m just really shocked to hear someone was actually able to grab your attention at all…and your heart.”

“He didn’t grab my heart. It’s…a little too early to say anyways,” Keith mumbles as he lets his hand fall back down to his lap. He might as well go along with this, just so he could secure his entry for the aquarium but he wasn’t about to sit there and talk about it until Shiro arrived.

“But I would really appreciate it if you didn’t tell Shiro about this. I don’t want him to know I came here to ask for the tickets…or about the date,” he manages to say the last part without rolling his eyes.

“My lips are sealed~” Matt says as he brings his fingers up to his lips to demonstrate his words. Keith knew he could trust Matt with this, both him and Pidge were trustworthy when it came to secrets. Well, sometimes at least when they weren’t trying to get revenge on him for silly things like pranks and whatnot but when they were serious matters, they were good at keeping secrets.

“But does Katie know about this?” Matt asks with a raised brow, curiosity evident on his face.

If there was one thing that worried Keith about telling any of the Holt siblings a secret, it was when they both knew said secret. Keith had discovered from Pidge herself that the two siblings liked to gossip with each other about what they knew and that was a bit unsettling for Keith since he knew how dangerous the two of them can be put together. He wouldn’t be surprised if Matt knew his secrets from Pidge but he knew Pidge long enough to know she wouldn’t betray him in any way. At least not with the bigger secrets.

“No, she doesn’t,” Keith says with a small nod of his head. “But I should leave before Shiro gets here.”

Matt watches Keith stand from the couch and says before he could walk,

“Alright, make sure to get home safe. As for the tickets, can you meet me at the entrance by 1? I know it’s a little early but I’ll be on my lunch break at that time and that’s the only time I’d be able to get you guys in…”

“No, 1 is fine. I’ll be-“ Keith catches himself in time for him to correct himself,

“We’ll be there. Thanks for this, I’ll pay you back.”

“Hey, you know there’s no need for that. You’re like the younger brother I needed instead of Katie…she’s way too evil,” Matt says with a small pout as he unfolds his leg and gets up from the couch.

“She learns from the best, doesn’t she?” Keith says with a grin. Matt walks up to Keith with squinted eyes and pokes his arm as he mumbles,

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means what I said,” Keith chuckles as he pats Matt’s arm before making his way to the front door. Matt follows after him to walk him out, when reaching the door he opens it for Keith and calls out to him while watching him walk out,

“I’ll see you tomorrow!” Keith turns halfway to wave at him before turning back around to make his way down the block.

Keith takes his time getting home since he needed to think about how he was going to do this. He had to call out of work again or at least make up a really, really good excuse to not be able to show up so he wouldn’t lose his job, he had to find someone to bring along for the extra pass he was going to be given. He had to prepare himself for what was to come and just the thought of everything was making him nervous.

But why?

Keith still couldn’t understand why he had been so extremely nervous and out of it when he first arrived at the aquarium. Well, more specifically to the Merman exhibit. It was so…strange and unordinary. Was it the Merman’s doing? Was he trying to strike fear in the humans because of his hatred towards them? Keith couldn’t possibly be the only one who felt that way, right? Or was Keith just unconsciously excited? Maybe he had been feeling the excitement from when he first visited the aquarium with his mother years ago.

Yeah, that had to be it. Keith was simply feeling nostalgia…maybe a little too much to the point where he nearly had a panic attack but that had to be it.

It had to…right?

 

Once Keith had made it home, he had walked straight into the kitchen to grab an apple from the bowl on top of the counter before making his way to his room. After walking up the steps he walks up to his door but before he could push it open, his eyes land on the closed door not so far form his own down the small hallway. Both him and Shiro hadn’t stepped foot in that room ever since they were pulled out of the house by the police years ago. Keith didn’t have the confidence to walk in there, he knew he wouldn’t even be able to last a second in that room because it was his mothers. Her scent would surely still be lingering around in there and her room as clean as she had left it before she had walked out the house for the very last time.

Keith just wasn’t ready to walk back in there. He wasn’t ready to have his heavily built walls break down. Not just yet…

He pushes the door to his room open and walks in before closing it. He goes up to his computer desk and sits on his chair, slowly swinging himself around in a circle as he takes a bite of his apple. He leans back into his chair and lays his head against the head rest to look up at the ceiling.

“Am I really doing this?” he mumbles softly to himself in thought after swallowing what he had in his mouth. He brings the apple up to his view and stares at the exposed area he had bitten into, the white of the inside similar to the color of his ceiling.

“Should I be doing this…?” he whispers with furrowed brows as he stares at the apple a couple of seconds more before bringing it down to bite into it again.

After finishing his apple and tossing the leftovers into his trashcan, he decides to take a quick shower and do a little bit of typing to try and clear his mind. He knew not to wait for Shiro if he was out with Matt so after Keith does an hour or so of typing his story, which he only needed one chapter to go before submitting it, he tosses himself into his bed and curls himself under his blanket. As he was falling asleep, he could feel something bubbling in his stomach. If he had to describe the feeling, he would describe it as…butterflies?

This wasn’t something he should be feeling, this was something someone would feel when they had a crush on someone…or so he had read in many books and watched in many movies. He obviously didn’t see it that way though, he had simply thought of it as him being nervous because this time he DID have a reason to be nervous.

This time he was going to seek answers to his unanswered questions and before he could ponder any more on those thoughts, he had fallen asleep.

He had fallen asleep with the butterflies still fluttering softly in his stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I realized that I'm really really REALLY bad at naming my chapters and as much as I want to convert them to simple Chapter 123's, I already named them so I'm gonna keep horribly naming them (TT^TT)
> 
> But once again I'm posting slow and late (TT^TT) Life just wants to kick me around so please bare with my slow posting. I'll eventually surprise you all with multiple chapters soon once I get the free time to do so (which will hopefully be soon).
> 
> This chapter is also a little shorter than the others and I didn't get to write everything I wanted to in this chapter so best believe the next will be longer but I still hope you like it~! <3
> 
> {P.S. I forgot to mention that there's a reason for Keith feeling nervous every time he goes to the aquarium and if you stick around, you'll see why~! ;D }


	7. The Return

Keith was nervous.

Again.

His nerves had only just began once he had arrived at the entrance of the aquarium. Not when he had woke up early in the morning and got ready, not when he called one of his coworkers to convince him to skip work with him before calling his job to tell them his _“Brother was sick”_ so he couldn’t make it. Not anything before his arrival at the aquarium had Keith been nervous until this very moment. He now knew that it had to do with the Merman, there was no other explanation for the sudden burst of anxious-like emotions. Keith knew he was a healthy person, thanks to Shiro being on top of him on going to his doctor appointments of course but at least he knew he was going to live a good long life..

But here Keith was, standing at the entrance of the aquarium with his fellow coworker Marco, the two of them skipping work for a trip at the aquarium. Keith made sure to pick someone who:

  1. Really wanted to go to the aquarium but couldn’t because of the lack of money
  2. Was at least good looking (And Marco was somewhat of an eye-candy to many people: short blonde hair and blue eyed French guy. Even Keith would go as far as to say he was good looking but the guy had a pretty big ego, something Keith didn’t want to inflate any more than what it was…)
  3. Liked guys.



Keith needed to make the “fake date” as realistic as he could without both Matt and Marco finding out about it.

Yeah, that’s right, Marco had no idea they were on a fake date and Keith knew for a fact that if he DID know of the charades Keith had to put on, he would play a little too much into the ‘Boyfriend Role’. The guy was a pretty handsy person and as mentioned, contained a rather large ego that Keith honestly couldn’t stand. If Keith had known someone else who had fit his checklist, he would’ve taken them instead because not only was this guy’s ego big in every known topic, whether it be looks or personality, he had asked Keith to go out with him quite some time ago. Keith did what was natural for him and took it as the guy joking around with him because there was no way Keith would ever go out with him. Not even if he was the last person alive on earth and the sea but because of those unrequited feelings towards him, Keith decided to take a small, teeny, tiny advantage of it for the day.

Yeah, he was being an asshole for that but it was for an important cause and Keith would make sure to thank him on the run for this.

In his head of course…

But this was a last minute personal mission and he had to grab whatever was in range to commence. Besides, it wasn’t like Keith was planning to stick around with him for the whole day. He had already planned on ditching the guy once they got their tickets from Matt and Keith made sure to tell him just that.

“You sure you don’t wanna spend the day with me? For you to call me and ask to skip work for a day at the aquarium sounds a lot like a date to me~” Marco coo’s as he wiggles his eyebrows at Keith. Keith rolls his eyes and manages to hold back a groan as he looks around in hopes of spotting Matt already. He didn’t want to hang along with this guy a second longer.

“I am absolutely sure. I only brought you along so you could find someone else to hit on. Maybe you’ll find someone else to bother every day, for the rest of your life and you can finally leave me alone,” Keith deadpans.

“You know you can’t get enough of me _Mon Cheri_ , I’m irresistible and THAT’S why you called me out here today,” he says wiggling his brows once again at him.

“Actually it’s quite the opposite: I’ve had enough of you and I want to get rid of you already.”

As much as Keith tried his very hardest to be an asshole towards him, just to get him off his back, it never worked. Apparently Keith’s _“Mean and Sassy”_ side, or what Marco liked to call it, was what had Marco trying to get to him. Marco had told him so and Keith had tried everything in his power to not blow up on the guy for even THINKING he had any kind of sass in him but the guy was a stubborn one. It was proving to be hard to shake him off though, every time Keith had to go to work and deal with Marco’s failed attempts at flirting to him almost every day.

It was something Keith never dealt with before though. He had never had anyone try to get his attention like this or try to get him to date them and Keith appreciated that about the guy but he simply wasn’t interested. He wasn’t interested in dating at the moment, nor was he interested in Marco, despite how annoyingly nice he can be when he’s trying to flirt with him...

He just wasn’t up for it…at least not yet.

“Are you really going to keep playing hard to get _Mon Amour_? If so, it’ll only encourage me to try just as hard to win over your heart,” Marco slightly leans down to coo into Keith’s ear while sliding his arm around Keith’s shoulder, the male having been at least a good solid foot taller than him.

Keith was just about to move himself at least three steps to the side away from him when he notices Matt from the corner of his eyes. He turns his head a bit to see Matt come out of a black car that parks next to the side walk that’s pretty far from them, seeing how the sidewalk to the aquarium was quite large in length and width from the street, also pretty spacious. Matt waves at him while beginning to approach them, Keith knowing he should do the same but without Marco by his side, or else he’d be risking Matt finding out that this wasn’t really a date.

How? Because Marco would say something oh so irritating that Keith won’t be able to hold back in cursing out and strangling the guy. Marco really did bring something out of Keith but it wasn’t anything good, that was for sure.

“Well, you’re going to be trying for a very long time-“Keith says with a raised brow as he began to slowly slip himself away from Marco’s arm in a way that wouldn’t seem like he was uncomfortable with him to Matt. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

He unfolds his arms before making his way towards Matt to meet him halfway. When they catch up to each other, Keith finally notices the grin on Matt’s face before he looks over his shoulder to grab a quick glance of Marco. Keith tries to hold back a frown, telling himself to simply go along with this, that I’d be over as soon as he and Marco walk inside the aquarium.

“I see you two are quite ‘friendly’ with each other for a first date. Or is this not your first date?” Matt asks now looking back to Keith with a raised brow, grin still wide and in place.

“It’s not. We’ve…known each other for a while already, I told you we work together, didn’t I?” Keith says while not bothering to turn around to look back at the other. Matt nods as he mumbles a soft, “Ah, you did,” before digging into the white lab coat he was currently wearing over his clothes with the blue initials ‘A.A.I.D’, underneath it spelt out in cursive ‘Altean Aquarium Ichthyology Department’. He pulls out the two V.I.P passes and holds it out to Keith while saying, “He’s a pretty cute one, good job snagging him up~!”

[Oh, if only you knew] Keith told himself as he grabbed the tickets from him, doing everything in his power to not roll his eyes and gag but instead he mumbles, “Yeah, he is…”

“Soo, you wanna introduce us? I am seriously curious about the guy who finally robbed THEE Keith Kogane-“ Matt says glancing over Keith’s shoulder once again and sending a small wave to Marco this time, Marco instantly waving back.

“As much as I’d like to introduce you to him, we’re kind of in a hurry,” Keith quickly says as he averts Matt’s attention back to him by blocking his view of Marco with himself, a small smile forcing its way up to Keith’s lips.

Matt’s grin slightly falters and a small hint of confusion is evident in his face as he shoves his hands into the pockets of his lab coat. Keith tried to think of WHY they would possibly be in a hurry to walk through an enormous building and as he searched his head for yet another lie he manages to slightly stutter out,

“W-We, uh, made a reservation. To a restaurant. W-We don’t want to miss it so we want to at least skim through the place before our reservation…”

“Oooh, nice! Which restaurant is it?” Matt asks with a small smile.

Great. 21 questions. Just what Keith needed at the moment when he could hardly come up with one lie.

“I-It’s actually not that far from here, we’re going walking...” he manages not to mumble at an attempt to another lie. Keith honestly had no idea if there really WAS a restaurant nearby but to his surprise and utmost luck, Matt snaps his fingers and says with a bit excitement in his voice,

“Oh! Is it that 5 star place that me and Shiro went to last year for our anniversary? You know which one it is, right? I believe it’s called Sal’s Restaurant.”

“Yeah, it’s that one,” Keith responded a little too quickly, hoping Matt didn’t notice but he doesn’t seem to catch on to his slightly nervous responses at all. Instead, he nods before he pats Keith on the side of his arm.

“Look at you two, going all fancy with your date today~! You should’ve worn something a little more decent than black jeans and a red sweater though, especially with this weather…and the restaurant is pretty fancy in theme,” Matt says while bringing one hand up out of his pocket to pinch his chin but smiles right after and says, “But hey, don’t listen to me, this is your date!”

Keith nods his head and manages to put up a smile because hearing the word date while with Marco sounded like he was currently in a nightmare. Luckily for him though he didn’t have to heart the word anymore, for Matt had shoved his hand in his pocket and says,

“I guess I’ll let you two get to it then. Don’t wanna hold you guys up…and I don’t wanna skip lunch either, I feel like I’m dying with these heavy hours at the lab.”

Keith chuckles a bit before holding up the V.I.P passes by the dark purple string attached to it and says, “Thanks again Matt.”

“No problem kiddo! You two have fun, alright?” he says with a bigger smile as he pats Keith’s arm again. He looks over Keith once more to send Marco another wave before turning and making his way back to the car, where two more people in lab coats were watching and waiting for him. Keith watches him get inside the car and watches it leave before turning around with a sigh.

Lying in general was a difficult task for Keith, he wasn’t good at it. Especially when it came to having to lie right on the spot. He wasn’t bright with his lies but he was really surprised that Matt fell for everything he had just said. Keith was positive that Shiro would never had fell for anything he had just said and maybe it was because he was his brother but Keith felt he was pretty obvious.

But hey, Keith wasn’t complaining in the slightest bit. If anything, he was very relieved he didn’t have to play 21 questions with Matt because he would literally stand there and ask him 21 questions if Keith hadn’t told him they were on a tight schedule. Keith couldn’t help but praise himself in doing good at lying for once as he walked over to Marco but his victory praise ends once he catches up to him. He holds out the pass to Marco and watches him take it with awe before slipping his own around the belt loop on his jeans and tying it securely.

“Like I said, you go your way and I’ll go mine. Deal?”

“But _Mon Cheri_ , I-“

“Look Marco-“Keith says turning to face him while digging into his pocket and takes out a black hair tie. He starts to tie his hair together so his neck could breathe a bit while saying, “I’m sorry if I gave you any kind of false hope, that wasn’t my intention-“

“Then why DID you ask me out today?” he asks with a small frown as he folds his arms over his chest. Now that he had asked, Keith didn’t think this far into his plan. But this was Marco he was talking to, he was sure he could make up some kind of excuse….

Or not.

Keith almost forgot he was a terrible liar but he looks up to Marco after tying his hair and says with a small smile after remembering something,

“You’ve been nagging everyone’s ear out at work about wanting to come here but you didn’t have the money for it. I just got you a free pass, and a V.I.P one to top it off, so now you can tell everyone at work about it.”

“This isn’t what I had in mind though,” he pouts as he turns his head to the side. Keith lets out a sigh and nods his head in disbelief to the others child-like expression.

“If you want, I’ll promise to make it up to you at work tomorrow but I’m kind of in a hurry so I’ll see you later,” Keith says while backing up towards the entrance.

“Why are you in such a hurry to get inside of a- Keith!”

Keith had turned around and waved Marco off as he walked to the doors of the aquarium, leaving Marco to his unspoken words. Keith didn’t bother checking if he was being followed because once he was inside and his pass was scanned, he was making a bee line through the crowd so he could make his way to the Merman exhibit.

His nerves were acting up again as he walked through tunnel after tunnel, feeling his insides churn and twist with anxiousness to the point that he had to slow his pace down a bit. He didn’t stop though, for no matter how nervous he was he wanted answers. He needed answers and he wasn’t going to let these sudden outburst of strange emotions stop him. This mission of his was very important for him and might just be a life changer. Meeting this Merman was going to prove if what Keith had experienced a week ago was real and not him hallucinating, to prove if he was crazy or not.

This was very important for him.

 

                                    ~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~

 

[Do you think he’ll come?] Lance had asked Hunk as he slowly swam his way around the lower part of the tank with his fingertips oh so slightly grazing along the glass. He was just above the human’s eyesight level as he swam about, smiling and waving his free hand whenever someone had waved at him. As usual.

Hunk had been swimming right below Lance in unison, unlike Lance he was right in front of the human’s eyesight and waved his flipper from time to time to greet everyone. The two have been at it since opening hour, just like every other day but the only difference from those days and the current was Lance’s anxiousness. His repetitive questions about the human’s appearance every 20 minutes or so had Hunk sighing repeatedly himself. Ever since Lance had told Hunk about his interaction with the human guy, he wouldn’t stop asking questions like the one he had just asked him for what seemed like the hundredth time that week.

[Would you just relax Lance? He’ll show up because you told him to…right?] Hunk says turning himself around so his back was facing the floor of the tank while he was now looking up at Lance with questioning eyes.

[Well, I couldn’t really say much, _‘they’_ were listening in, like always. I only got away with telling him ‘next week’…do you think he knew what I meant?] Lance gasps right after, mouth slightly opening to reveal his front sharp teeth before he turns downward to look at the sea lion below him, arms coming up to his chest as his eyes widen a bit.

[Oh my Zeus Hunk! What if he didn’t understand what I meant?? What if he misunderstood and never comes back, I won’t get to ask if he knows my mother Hunk! This is serious buddy, what are we going to do-!]

[Lance,] Hunk sighs as he places his flipper over his face. The outside audience react with audible “Aww’s” through the glass but the two of them pay no mind to it.

Hunk didn’t have a good feeling about Lance interacting with whoever this human guy was and he had told him about his concern over it but ever since he told Lance he would help him, he hadn’t mentioned it again. Something inside of Hunk was telling him that this was all going to have some really bad consequences but he tried not to dwell on those feelings so much. It was natural for Hunk to feel that way from time to time though since Lance was a troublemaker. Ever since he was a guppy, Lance knew how to get the both of them in trouble, even when he wasn’t doing anything mischievous, so Hunk blamed his paranoia of getting in trouble from his past with Lance…but mainly Lance.

[Your anxiousness is making ME anxious Lance, for no reason! Just take a deep breathe in, let it out and wait patiently. We still have a good couple of hours left of the day, so there’s no need to panic…yet.]

Lance let’s his arms fall from his chest to hang out in front of Hunk and mumbles while pouting his bottom lip,

[Ok…]

He wiggles his out stretched fingers to signal for Hunk to move in for a hug and Hunk does just that. Once the two were embraced in each other’s arms they swirl around slowly while Lance maneuvers them slowly around the tank. When the two stop twirling to simply float about with Lance keeping them afloat, Lance places his chin on top of Hunks head and he looks out and around the glass. He looked over the passing-by faces in search of the nameless human, of HIS nameless human.

[Hunk?] Lance mumbles as he slowly closes his eyes and adjusts his arms around the large sea lion. Hunk responds with a soft hum before they go quiet for a couple of seconds, listening to the distant chattering of the humans outside of the tank as he waits for Lance to speak again.

[Just in case I do get caught by the scientist for talking to this human, I just want you to know that I love you very much and-]

[Seriously Lance?? You sound like you’ve already gotten caught, don’t talk like that!] Hunk whines as he attempts at slapping Lance’s back but since they were under water, it didn’t have the same harsh affect it did out of the water. Lance was sure he saw little fishes swimming around his head every time Hunk slapped his back, it was the most painful thing anyone could ever feel. Hunk’s flipper slaps was what kept Lance in check sometimes because holy Zeus, those slaps were deadly!

[Come on Hunk, I’m trying to be serious here! I’m trying to express my gratitude to you for everything you’ve done for me!] Lance says trying to keep a serious expression but when he looks down at Hunk and see’s the sea lion trying to glare at him, he couldn’t help but giggle.

[Lance, now it’s my turn to tell you to that I’m trying to be seri-OW!] Hunk cries when he feels a set of teeth chomping down onto his neck. Lance had dipped his head down to sink his teeth onto him but not enough to pierce his skin, obviously playful of course since he would never harm Hunk in any way possible and nibbles on his skin before pulling away with a grin.

[Oh, so you wanna bite, huh?] Hunk says while tightening his flippers around Lance’s torso, taking away any means of escape from him. Lance knew instantly he was in trouble and tries to wriggle his way out of his grasp with an apologetic smile, now pleading,

[W-Wait Hunk, have mercy on me, yeah? I was just trying to get your attention, don’t do this here, spare me buddy-]

Lance was instantly cut off when Hunk begins to nip around his chest and torso with the same soft yet ticklish pressure Lance used against him, turning Lance into a laughing mess. It was a laugh only Hunk and any other fish in the tank could hear but his facial expression showed he was laughing, his smile big and his mouth opening a couple of times as he continued at attempting to pry himself out of the sea lions clutches.

The two were immersed in their own little word as they floated around like this for a couple of minutes, paying no mind to the on looker’s outside the glass because they were used to it.

Lance was used to it.

He was forced into learning that he’d have no privacy when in the aquarium tank waters and there was nothing he could do about it….absolutely nothing.

[It looks like you two are having a lot of fun today] a voice came from above the two swirling mammals. They both come to a halt when hearing the voice and look up to see a friendly face and much smaller sea mammal approaching them. Hunk let’s go of Lance and waves his flipper greeting-ly while Lance swims his way up to meet her half way.

[Shay, you’re here!] Hunk says cheerfully as he watches Lance swim up to her and place his hands around the small sea otters head, giving her the same air bubble Hunk was given to breath under water, since sea otters couldn’t breathe more than 5 minutes under water.

She was a close friend to them both but she didn’t get to hang out with them as often as they’d like due to her always being outside with the other land mammals. When she did though, they always had just as fun hanging around with each other.

Well, she didn’t get to hang with them as often as Hunk would like, in Lances opinion. He knew how much of a liking Hunk had towards the smaller mammal. Lance knew after a couple of times hanging with the female sea otter that Hunk had a crush on her. He had denied it at first and used their differences in species and sizes as an excuse for them not being able to even like each other but Lance had convinced him otherwise. Ever since then, Hunk didn’t hold back on showing his excitement every time she was put together with him and Lance. Especially during their monthly performances where Shay always leads their shows.

Shay was the kindest and sweetest mammal they had known throughout the whole aquarium. Lance even declared her first place from the “Kind” rank, beating Hunk in the category but he didn’t care. If anything he agreed with him but Lance knew that was a given.

[Hello Lance-] she greeted as she grabbed his hand with her very small ones to shake it before swimming up to Hunk and grabbing a hold of his already outstretched flipper. She doesn’t let go as she says, [Hello Hunk. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to see the both of you. How have you been? Have they been treating you well?]

And from there, the three of them engage in a conversation as they casually swim around the tank, paying no mind to the outside world and staying in their own bubbled world. Lance could even say he had forgotten about what he had been worried about for a couple of minutes because when he was with his friends, he could forget about all his troubles. It was a nice distraction, especially when the outside mammals come in and talk to him about what their day was like outside of the aquarium. It excited him just by listening to them but that distraction didn’t last very long for him.

Lance had been brought right out of his bubble though when he took a quick glance from the corner of his eye below him and out the glass, having been hovering over the very top of it. He does a double-take when he recognizes the all too familiar face standing in the center of the aquarium below him, the all too familiar face he had been waiting for this whole time, the all too familiar face looking up at him from outside the glass. Lance’s eyes slightly widen as he looks him in the eyes for a couple of seconds with surprise before turning to look at Hunk. He instantly interrupts his conversation with Shay, earning him a small frown before he begins to stutter,

[H-Hunk, he’s here! H-He came back! He’s here Hunk!]

[Really?? Where?] Hunk asks as his frown instantly disappears and he turns along with Lance to look below them.

[Um…who do you speak of, if you don’t mind me asking?] Shay asks confusedly as she watches the two look down and out the glass with wandering eyes.

[It’s a long story-] Hunk had started as he turns his head to look at her but Lance grabs a hold of his head and turns it right back around.

[Focus Hunk, look straight ahead. He’s looking right at us. The one with the black messy hair, do you see him?] Lance guides as he slightly narrows his eyes. Hunk follows Lance’s instructions until he finally notices the said human right below them looking up at them.

[Ok, I see him…and he looks kind of mad.]

[He’s mad because I called his hair messy. Apparently he doesn’t like anyone talking about his unnaturally long hair] Lance says grinning at Hunk before looking down again to see the human below him fold his arms over his chest and glaring up at him.

                                     ~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~

[What is it with you and my hair?] Keith growls as he physically lets out a small groan.

Once Keith had walked into the exhibit, it was almost instant that he was able to hear the familiar voice of the Merman ringing in his head. He hadn’t said anything at first, simply listening in on his conversation, or what Keith was sure he was having a conversation with the mammals around him since he couldn’t hear anything else but his voice. It was also an instant confirmation that Keith hadn’t gone crazy and he hadn’t been hallucinating a week ago.

This was very real.

[It’s just a little too much for your small face. Doesn’t it bother you when your hair gets into your face?] The merman says with a small frown as he starts to swim his way down from the top. Keith wasn’t sure if he should be happy or mad about his comment but he knew he wasn’t there for any kind of commentary on his appearance.

[No, it doesn’t- Look, I didn’t come here so you can poke fun at my hair. I came here so we can talk] Keith says following in the same direction to meet the merman halfway but he stops midway before he can even reach the glass when the merman says, [Wait!]. Keith blinks a little confusedly as he watches him come to a halt halfway down the glass with folded arms over his chest and asks,

[The only way I’ll talk to you is if you don’t yell at me like before. My hearing is really sensitive so I won’t be able to hear you clearly if you’re yelling inside of my head. Also, you can’t be mean, Hunk doesn’t approve of that.]

[Hunk? Who’s Hunk-] Keith had started off but when he takes notice of the sea lion beside him leering at him, he had a pretty good idea of who it was. He closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath, letting it out slowly before bringing an arm up to wrap around his chest while the other came up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Keith was lucky that no one seemed to notice his actions because if they did, they would clearly think the guy was crazy and arguing with himself.

It wasn’t as crowded as it was when he first came to the aquarium but there was a reasonable amount of people wandering about, enough to direct their attention to anything else but him. There was also enough people for Keith to dodge Marco once he reached the exhibit and he was grateful for that.

[Ok, I won’t yell] He manages to say in the calmest tone he could.

[And?] The merman urges on with a raised brow. Keith lets out an annoyed growl before mumbling, [And I won’t be mean. Are you…BOTH happy? If you are, then get down from there already so we can talk.]

[Hey, didn’t we just establish for you not to be mean?] Lance nearly whines with a small pout. Keith nearly opens his mouth to speak but remembers just in time who he was talking to, managing to keep it close before responding.

[Wha- I’m not being mean, you’re just too overly sensitive!] Keith growls a tad bit loudly as he glares up at him, feeling himself lose his patience little by little because the more they argued about the small and stupid things, they were losing time to deal with the important ones. When he watches the Merman quickly swim and cower behind the large sea lion though, he realizes that the merman was indeed sensitive to loud sounds but he had a feeling there was more to it than Keith’s loud inside voice.

Keith had also realized that the Merman’s friend wasn’t taking a liking to him so far as he continued to leer at him with the merman peering out from behind him. He knew that if he kept this up, the sea lion was bound to find a way to jump out of the tank and beat the living soul out of him and the fact that Keith was sure about this had him sighing in defeat.

Cooperation was a must here.

[Look, I’m sorry, Ok? I’m just…really anxious. The fact that I’m able to talk to you at all is really important for me, you might have the answers I’m looking for, about my mother so-] Keith looks down from the merman to his folded arms around his chest and takes his bottom lip between his teeth. He didn’t like being so open with his emotions, especially when it came to meeting someone for the first time. Especially with a Merman of all living things…but this was important to him so he mumbles softly once again, [I’m sorry.]

When he doesn’t hear any kind of reaction from the Merman, he lets go of his bottom lip and looks up to see him looking down at him with slightly widened blue eyes. It was almost similar to the look he had given him when he first found out Keith was able to hear him at all and something about that look had butterflies fluttering in his stomach.

Wait, butterflies? Why would Keith be feeling butterflies, there was no way he could be feeling such things. This wasn’t the time, the place or the person(?) to be having butterflies towards and if it weren’t for the merman breaking the silence between them, Keith was sure he’d try to convince himself he was indeed crazy.

[Why is it so important for you to talk to me?] The merman asks with a serious expression now, finally swimming away from the sea lions back and slowly making his way in the opposite direction from where Keith was standing, but his eyes still on him. Keith doesn’t bother in following his eyes after the merman, instead he walks up to the glass to watch the little family of fish swim by in front of him. He didn’t expect the Merman wanting to know his reason for being here, at least not yet but he had really hoped to just ask his questions and leave.

But if talking about his mother meant he was going to get the merman’s cooperation, then so be it. He DID come here to talk about her regardless so Keith couldn’t get himself out of this even if he wanted to. He made up his mind and he was going to stick with his decision, like he always does.

[Like I said, it’s…it’s about my mother. She was a writer, well-known by a lot of people and she used to come here to the aquarium to do interviews on the mermaid before she…she died.]

[Kimberly, right?]

Keith’s eyes slightly widen form hearing the name before he looks up and around for the merman, who was on the other side of the tank waving at some kids with a small smile.

[Yeah, did you know her?] He asks as he turns to make his way towards the merman but he stops when the merman says, [Don’t come.]

[What, why?] He asks a bit confused as he watches him float his way very slowly around the tank to greet the humans at eye level.

[Remember when I told you to forget the fact you were able to talk to me?]

[Yeah, you told me to forget for both of our safeties…] Keith says with a raised brow.

[Well, I didn’t say it because I didn’t want to talk to you…I said that because I’m being watched. WE’RE being watched, to make sure I’m not able to communicate with anyone outside of the tank. So if you don’t want either of us to be pulled over by any security guards and taken to the lab, I suggest you don’t follow me around, um…] the merman hums lastly, Keith realizing he doesn’t know his name.

[Keith] he finishes for him as he watches the merman slowly reach to where he was standing by the glass. He flashes him a small smile that has those damn butterflies in Keith’s stomach going haywire again but he does everything in his power to ignore it.

[You may know me already but I’ll introduce myself anyways: The name’s Lance, full-time Merman of Altea Aquarium. It’s nice to meet your acquaintance Keith~! I would shake your human hand if I could but if you hadn’t realized yet, there’s a wall of glass right between us. Also, we’re being watched.]

Keith hadn’t realized he had softly giggled at the merman’s words and lame attempt at a joke until he hears the merman doing the same. Lance’s smile was big enough to the point where Keith was able to catch a snippet of what must’ve been Lance’s sharp predator teeth, but that wasn’t what had Keith mesmerized and staring at him. It was how bright his smile had looked, how goofy yet soothing and pure his soft giggle had sounded in his head. It was almost a shame no one else could hear it…

Or was it really? Because somewhere deep in Keith’s mind, he was convinced that it was Ok for him to be the only one to hear it. He wasn’t sure where that convincing had come from or what made him even think that to begin with but it felt so familiar and so…right.

[But getting back to the topic-] Lance says while flipping himself backwards into a circular like motion, his long blue tail following not so far from his head thanks to its length and flexibility, his tail slightly brushing against the glass before swimming away from Keith. [We have to be careful with how we interact in here. The security in here is no joke and once you’re caught, there’s no getting out.]

Keith couldn’t help but take a quick glance to the security camera near him against the ceiling. He had noticed the cameras on his way into the aquarium, starting from the very outside of the building, all the way through the tunnels and into the exhibit. Keith was able to spot around 3 to 4 cameras in the area as he glanced around the room, so he knew Lance’s words weren’t an overstatement when he said they were being watched.

They really had to be careful.

[You said something about being taken to a lab. Is it the lab where they take you for your checkups?] Keith asks, watching another family of fish swim by instead of Lance.

[Wait, how do you know about that?] Lance asks as he swims up to the very top to look down at Keith with a small frown. Keith doesn’t look up to him, instead he walks up to a nearly empty bench by the glass with 2 other people sitting down and sits himself at the very end before responding, [Some guy named Coran told me. He’s a staff here.]

[Is it the old man with orange hair and that puffy thing over his mouth? What is that thing, algae? Seaweed? Kelp?]

[No Lance, it’s not a sea-plant. It’s called a moustache but yeah, that’s the guy] Keith says chuckling a bit. When he turns his head to the side, he catches a glance of the people sitting beside him looking at him with confusion and raised brows. Keith hadn’t thought he chuckled loud enough for anyone to hear him but he WAS sitting in ear shot from next to them, so they were bound to hear something come out of him. He turns his head away quickly as he slips on the hood from his sweater out of embarrassment, his cheeks a slight hue of pink. Lance having been hovering in sight sees this and asks with a raised brow,

[What are you doing Keith?]

[N-Nothing, don’t worry about it,] he mumbles as he tries to rid himself of the color on his cheeks. When he feels his cheeks cool down, he looks back up to where Lance was still floating before continuing, [But from what I read in my mother’s interviews with the mermaid- Well, your mother- she told my mother that she wanted to leave the lab and that the scientist were mistreating her…]

Keith’s expression changed into a very slightly worried one as a small frown now took place, keeping his eyes locked into the ocean blues of Lance’s before asking a bit hesitantly,

[Are they mistreating you too? Is the reason why you call humans killers…because you blame the scientist for your mother’s death?]

Keith could tell even from their distance that Lance had frozen and was now looking down at him with wide eyes. He must’ve hit something in Lance that he shouldn’t have because when he didn’t speak or move, the sea lion had swam up to him and began to tug on his arm so he wouldn’t stay floating in one spot for too long. Keith did feel like he asked too many deep questions in one shot and he blamed it on him wanting to know everything about his mother already. It was something similar to desperation that had him rushing but he wouldn’t really call it desperation.

He just wanted answers.

                                        ~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~

[Lance, what happened? What did he say?] Hunk asks Lace as he tugs him along by the arm when he sees him frozen in place and looking at the human who he heard Lance call Keith. Lance doesn’t respond to him due to being both shocked and surprised by Keith’s sudden questions.

He hadn’t expect such a question from him, he wouldn’t had expected it from anyone thanks to the little trust and interest he has towards humans in general. This was the first time anyone had asked him anything other than questions based off of any little change he possibly felt with himself, especially when it came to any unknown powers. He didn’t think anyone would ever care about his wellbeing and even though he wanted to feel a bit glad deep inside from Keith’s question, he couldn’t. Not when he had followed with a question about his mother right after and the fact he had asked such a question had him going into an instant cautious mode. He was starting to think that Hunk may have had a point when he told him he shouldn’t be too trusting of the guy.

What if Keith WAS a scientist in disguise? What if this was a new assessment they were trying on him to see if the barrier around the glass had weakened and he was able to communicate with the humans? What if they’re testing him to see how much he would tell if he was able to talk with an adult human? What if all of the doubts that Lance didn’t want to believe…was all actually true?

[Talk to me Lance, did he say something bad? Did he threaten you?? Is he a scientist after all?! Did you get caught?! Will you please say something, I’m about to freak out and-]

[No] Lance mumbles loud enough to have Hunk hear him and stop. He stops from pulling on Lance’s arm and looks at him with confusion evident on his face. [No…?] Hunk repeats as he lets go of Lance’s arm when he feels him trying to wriggle it free from his grasp. He watches Lance slowly swim away from him while keeping his eyes on the human, waiting for a response from him because he was officially worried for his friend. He hadn’t seen such a serious expression on Lance for a very long time, most likely since they were both little and he didn’t think he would ever see it again but the fact he WAS wearing that expression really had him worried.

[Is everything okay Hunk?] Shay asks with concern in her voice as she swims up to his side and watches the merman swim up to the glass alongside Hunk. [What is going on? I’m confused, why does Lance looks so angry…]

[I don’t know why he’s angry either…but we’re going to have to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t stay still for too long, the staff will find him suspicious if he does. I’ll explain to you what I know, just follow me] Hunk says as they both follow behind Lance with Hunk explaining to Shay what Lance had told him. Hunk knew Lance trusted the sea otter just as much as he did to tell her what was going on, so he told her. It wasn’t like she could tell anyone anyways since the mammals and fish can only talk amongst themselves and to Lance.

As Hunk was talking, he made sure to keep an eye on Lance while doing so, making sure he didn’t do anything he shouldn’t. If he could, he would’ve joined in on the conversation but apparently when Lance was talking to any human, he couldn’t hear what either of them were saying for some strange reason. Hunk obviously couldn’t communicate with humans like Lance did but usually when Lance talked to the scientist and the aquatic team, he was able to at least hear what Lance was saying.

This time he couldn’t hear him at all.

He wasn’t sure if it was because Lance was too angry to keep the communication on between them or if Lance was keeping him out on purpose so Hunk wouldn’t hear but regardless of what it was, Hunk was very worried.

                                           ~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~

[How do you know that about my mother? Why do you even care if I WAS being mistreated anyways??] Lance snarls as he glares down at Keith, who was nearly taken aback by his words as he looks up at him with wide eyes now. [And why is it that you claim to be Kimberly’s child when she clearly told me and my mother she HAD no children?? I’m starting not to trust you, who are you really-]

[Wait, what?] Keith interrupts as he slightly shakes his head in disbelief. He honestly couldn’t believe his ears.

Or thoughts…

Or telepathic thoughts…

However the hell he was hearing Lance, he simply couldn’t believe it. His mother claimed to have no children? Why would she ever say that?? It made no sense to him, his mother never hid his and Shiro’s existence to anyone, what could possibly drive her to do such a thing?? They couldn’t have been talking about the same person…could they??

[That can’t be right, my mother would never deny having children, EVERYONE knows she had two sons. There’s no way she didn’t tell your mom, they seemed to be close in my mother’s files…There’s no way we’re talking about the same person,] Keith says returning the glare to the merman.

None of this was making sense, none of it matched up with what Keith knew and what Lance was telling him. It was frustrating, Keith was frustrated at this point and he could tell Lance was just as agitated by this. The fact that they were being timed to even talk and had to be cautious to not seem suspicious with their communication didn’t help either of them in focusing on what they had to say. Lance had to continue his way around the tank non-stop to entertain the visitors and Keith, having to watch him from where he sat, only growing impatient while doing so.

This wasn’t working out how he planned.

[Really long black hair, violet eyes with round glasses and carried a silver flipping computer thing all the time, right?] Lance says taking a quick glance to Keith’s direction after waving off a family of three who were making their way out of the exhibit and the aquarium. That was definitely his mother Lance had described and he simply lets out a soft sigh in response.

They both don’t say anything to each other for a couple of minutes as Keith watches Lance put up a small smile for a little girl and chase after her around the tank at her level, the little girl giggling as her hands slide against the glass. He couldn’t quite take his eyes off of the sight, for something about the scene had him feeling a bit…nostalgic? He wasn’t sure why though as he picked through his memories to try and find a memory of similarity to the scene before him but…there was nothing. Maybe it had been from his childhood spent with Shiro when they used to go to that one park by their grandparents home after school sometimes, just to run around and chase after each other like the kids they were…

He wasn’t sure what it was but he just couldn’t keep his eyes off of them until the little girl stopped and waved at Lance before walking to her father so they could leave the aquarium, Keith snapping himself out of his trance then. Lance finally turns his attention back to Keith as he swims to the top of the tank before swimming back down in towards Keith’s direction.

[Look, I really do care whether if you’re being mistreated or not-]

[Because you only want information out of me, right?] Lance interrupts with a small frown now as he swims up to a medium-sized rock and lays himself on it belly down with his arms hanging down. Right beside him was Hunk, who had laid beside him and the little sea otter who had hovered next to the sea lion.

[What? No, that’s not-]

[I may not know much about the human world you live in but…I do know how cruel you humans can be] Lance mumbles as he looks down at the sand-filled floor below him, reminiscing on memories he didn’t think he’d ever look back on ever again. Keith could feel his chest slightly clenching at the sight of Lance’s current expression. He looked genuinely hurt from whatever he must’ve been remembering and the expression he wore had only confirmed the question he had asked him. Why Keith had felt that way, he had not the slightest idea and something inside of him wanted to prove to Lance that not all humans were as cruel as he must’ve thought them to be. Keith was sure he must’ve seen every human being as a monster, he honestly couldn’t blame the guy though but something inside of him wanted to prove that he wasn’t one of those cruel humans he feared. He wanted to prove to him he was different…but how?

How could he possibly gain the trust of this merman and prove to him he wasn’t there just for Intel, to soothe his own satisfaction? That he wasn’t there to toss him away after getting the answers he needed, something the scientist most likely did with him on a dailt basis?

How…?

[I don’t know how my mother died, just like everyone else doesn’t know but…I know it wasn’t out of “natural causes” like the scientist say. Merfolk’s can live for more than hundreds of years, or so my mother had told me…yet my mother was very young before she passed…Someone must’ve hurt her and all I want is to find out who it was-]

Keith could only stare at Lance with slightly widened eyes as he listened to him, unsure of what to say form the slight shock he felt from his words. When the merman turns his head to look at him with saddened yet begging eyes, Keith could’ve sworn he felt someone punch him in the gut and knock the air right out of him. He couldn’t understand why he felt the current mixed emotions flowing through him as Lance looked at him with such an expression with his nearly clear blue irises, why his hands clenched into fists inside the pockets of his red hoody. It was so foreign and uncomfortable, he wasn’t used to it and didn’t like it either but he was…surprised.

He realized that the merman thought similar to his own thoughts. The fact that the merman was sure his mother was killed, just like Keith thought his own mothers “car accident” wasn’t just an accident, meant  that their thoughts were very similar, that their motives were the same: to get answers. That was more than a reason for Keith to gain the others trust, they needed to work together to solve whatever mystery this was. They both could use the closure with the truth.

[You have to know something about my mother’s death, right?] Lance asks with a very slight hint of hope in his eyes as he locks them with Keith’s. [Kimberly’s files and computer thing must’ve held some kind of information about it, m-maybe she wrote about it-]

[I’m sorry-] Keith prevents him from giving himself false hope as he looks away from him and down at his own lap. The hope in lance’s eyes instantly fades from his next words, [but there wasn’t anything about her death written anywhere. The only things written there was simple questions that everyone should know and how she met your father, there isn’t much I can tell you…]

[My father?] Lance mumbles with his eyes widening a bit. Keith looks up to see this when hearing the slight curiosity in his voice. [You know about my father?] He had asked.

[Well, not much. I only know how your parents met from a-] Keith had started but was interrupted by a voice coming from the intercoms announcing the closing of the aquarium.

“What?” Keith had mumbled aloud to himself in surprise before pulling out his phone to check the time. There was 10 minutes left before closing time already?! That went by way more quicker than he had thought!

He looks back up to Lance who mirrored the same look on his face from the announcement as he leaned up off the rock a bit.

They couldn’t part yet, they still had so much to talk about. They still had so many unanswered questions, so many thoughts to share and an unanswered mystery to solve. Keith wasn’t even sure if he would be able return to the aquarium for a while, he couldn’t keep asking Matt for free passes without raising some kind of suspicion from both him and his brother. Knowing Matt, he would most likely break their promise and tell Shiro if he found him acting strange and he didn’t need his brother investigating him on what he was doing. This was something Keith wanted to solve alone if he could. Alone with Lance, if that was even possible at this rate.

It most likely wasn’t though, not with how their current situation was…

Was this it for them?

[Will you come back tomorrow?] Lance asks as he pushes himself off the rock and slowly makes his way backwards without breaking eye contact with Keith.

[I can’t,] He says while standing up from the bench and letting his hands fall out of his pockets to his sides. [I…don’t think I’ll actually be able to come for a while.]

[What? Why??] Lance asks as he begins to make his way forward now until he reached the glass and places his hands flat against it with wide eyes, looking down at the other.

[I don’t know if you know this but it’s not easy getting in here. It’s pretty expensive...I don’t have the money to keep coming in everyday…] he says with the slight shrug of his shoulders, returning the gaze with a small frown. Keith wasn’t sure if it was panic in the merman’s eyes he had saw as he watched his wide blue eyes glance around at the people exiting the exhibit. Whether it was or not, Keith was slowly beginning to feel a slight panic rising within himself as well because there was no way he could just walk out without getting all the answers he needed.

He couldn’t walk out without knowing if he would ever see Lance again, especially with the current mixed expression he was now giving Keith: a little mix of panic, confusion, worry and so much more. The look in Lance’s light blue irises seemed to have held Keith standing in place, once again feeling paralyzed just liked the very first time he had locked eyes with him. It felt so…strange, yet something about that very look felt so familiar to Keith. He hated that he couldn’t pinpoint how or where that feeling of familiarity was coming from but he couldn’t dwell on it, not at the moment he couldn’t.

The voices on the intercoms spoke again, announcing the closure of the aquarium for the day once again and causing Keith’s stomach to drop. He takes a quick glance to look around at the nearly empty room now, spotting some security walking in during the process to see the rest of the visitors out. He didn’t want to cause trouble, he couldn’t afford to if he planned on another return to the exhibit so he begins to take a couple of steps backwards, slowly making his way towards the exit without breaking eye contact with Lance, who was now being pulled by the sea lion by his arm.

[Keith, wait-]

[Look, I’ll…I’ll try to find a way in. I can’t guarantee it’ll be soon but I’ll see what I can do-] he tries to reassure the other. [Just…wait for me.]

Keith gives the merman one last glance, which he hoped was reassuring enough for him before turning around and making his way out the exit.

[K-Keith, wait-] he hears Lance call out to him but he doesn’t bother turning around for a strange reason, excluding the aquarium security having been walking his way. He felt that if he turned around to the call of his name, he wouldn’t want to leave and it wasn’t because of his un-answered questions or unsolved mystery. There was something in the merman’s somewhat pleading voice for him to stay that had Keith’s chest slightly tighten. He never would’ve thought he would ever react that way to someone calling his name like so but he didn’t give in to it. He couldn’t, for both of their sakes.

Without another word or look to Lance, he walks through the exit doors.

[Please come back…]

Keith nearly does a double take towards the open doors once he was outside, unsure if he had actually heard the words coming from the merman but he was sure their connection was most likely cut off from the distance. Keith silently hoped it was because the frown he had only grew as he internally cursed at himself for many, many reasons.

For rushing into this without further planning, for not having the necessary things he needed to do what he needed to and for so much more but he couldn’t dwell on it. He couldn’t dwell on what he didn’t have and had to focus on what he needed to get, what he had to do next so he could figure all of this out, so he could solve this damn mystery.

To bring his mother to just…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, it has been WAY too long since I updated and I am very sure I've lost my wonderful readers (>_<)...But I want to 1. Apologize for the longest hiatus ever (or more like me going M.I.A) and 2. Announce that I'm bringing this baby back to life!
> 
> Things have gotten pretty hectic for me, up to the point where I could barely write anything...But I was able to motivate myself back up and made time to continue to write and publish more chapters! \\(^_^)/ The chapters title though can be referred to both the chapter and me (but its not, its just the chapter...that was a silly yet truthful joke...haha...)
> 
> Hopefully this chapter is to your liking and look forward to more~!


End file.
